VMRO-DPMNE Predicts 'Tension' if Opposition Runs Macedonia

If Macedonia's main opposition Social Democratic Union, SDSM, forms a new government in alliance with the main ethnic Albanian party, the Democratic Union for Integration, DUI, the result will be tension in Macedonia, VMRO DPMNE said in a press statement.

"We will do everything in our power to preserve peace and stability but we don't know how things will unfold. There will be tension as people are upset," the party leader and former Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski told visiting the British Minister for Europe and the Americas, Alan Duncan, on Thursday.

Gruevski has accused Zoran Zaev, head of the SDSM, of disregarding the national interest in his attempts to woo the DUI by accepting DUI demands for a new law that would extend the use of the Albanian language throughout Macedonia.

Gruevski said that Zaev was making too many concession to Albanians, adding: "There are still forces who are willing to stand for the defence of national interests".

Zaev on Thursday claimed he had now secured the support of the DUI and had a right to obtain a mandate from President Gjorge Ivanov to form a government. He said he expected to form the government within the next two weeks, in early March.

However, the DUI has yet to confirm an official pact with the SDSM. A decision is expected in the coming days, possibly at Friday's session of its central presidency.

The exact content of the language law agreed between the SDSM and DUI is unknown but both parties have insisted the provisions won't breach the constitution or endanger the integrity of Macedonia, as Gruevski and his party claim.

A little-known nationalist group called Hardcore has already called on ethnic Macedonians to join a protest march in support of a unitary...