Macedonia Albanians Seek to Join Opposition-Led Govt

The main ethnic Albanian party in Macedonia, the Democratic Union for Integration, DUI, has formally decided to participate in a future government led by the opposition leader Zoran Zaev, and has urged the country's President to revoke his veto on the Social Democrats leading a new administration.

The party previously allowed its ten MPs to submit signatures of support, so that Zaev's Social Democrats, SDSM, could claim the backing of a majority of MPs in parliament and seek a mandate from President Gjorge Ivanov.

The new, firmer decision emerged at a meeting of the party's presidency on Friday night, when the DUI decided that it would also join such a government.

"The decision to enter an SDSM-led government was reached unanimously," the head of the DUI, Ali Ahmeti, said on Friday around midnight.

The DUI urged Ivanov to immediately stop blocking a Zaev-led government, insisting that nothing in the agreed platform of the next government posed a danger to Macedonia's constitution, integrity and sovereignty.

Tensions - high since the closely run general election in December - soared further on Monday after Zaev asked President Ivanov to offer him a mandate, only for Ivanov to refuse to do so.

Ivanov insisted that such a government had the potential to "destroy the country" because Zaev had earlier accepted a number of demands from the country's ethnic Albanian parties as contained in an agreed "Albanian platform".

These include extension of the official use of Albanian to the whole of the country.

Zaev, who has obtained the support of all three ethnic Albanian parties represented in parliament, accused Ivanov of attempting a coup by denying the will of the majority.

Ivanov's...

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