Macedonia’s DUI Rebuffs Being Pressed over Presidency

The party says it was only a speculation that the main ruling VMRO DPMNE has set this as a condition for resuming talks on the formation of a new government led by Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski and that they have been pressed to appear at Ivanov’s inaugural session.

“All media claims regarding the government talks are based on speculations because they lack concrete sources”  said the DUI spokesperson Bujar Osmani adding that the public will be “additionally informed” whether their MP’s will attend Ivanov’s inaugural session in parliament.

Gjorge Ivanov won at the just finished presidential elections in April that were held in parallel with the early general polls. Ivanov was running for a second five-year term in office for the VMRO DPMNE.

But the DUI which is part of the VMRO DPMNE led government since 2008 previously said it would not recognize Ivanov as President because of the way he was elected.

The DUI boycotted the presidential polls, having demanded the selection of a “consensual president” who would be elected in parliament following an agreement between the strongest parties in the Macedonian and Albanian blocs.

The two ruling parties used this disagreement as an official reason for setting up the parallel general elections.

Ivanov’s first presidential term ends on Monday, May 12 which is the deadline for his inaugural session in parliament.  The opposition is not going as it disputed the entire election process as fraudulent and returned parliament seats.

But according to a high ranking anonymous VMRO DPMNE official cited by the Dnevnik daily, the DUI has been warned not to avoid the inaugural session.

At the government talks that were launched this week “the...