Ahmeti

The former partners in the last coalition government in North Macedonia, the Social Democrats, SDSM, of Zoran Zaev, and the Democratic Union for Integration, DUI, led by Ali Ahmeti, are engaged in substantial talks on a new government, amid speculation that talks might be stuck over the DUI's insistence on an ethnic Albanian prime minister.

As the President Hashim Thaci on Kosovo launched talks on Monday with party leaders on the formation of a government of national unity - "to avoid an institutional vacuum", as he said - legal experts told BIRN that his hands in the formation of a new cabinet are largely tied, and success in this venture looked unlikely.

The group of ethnic Albanians appeared in court as they have been granted a retrial by the North Macedonia judicial authorities.

There was nothing unexpected about the referendum. It was clear that the government in Skopje would struggle to reach the 50 percent threshold to make the plebiscite. Also certain was that the yes vote would be in a strong lead.

The Mayor of Pristina, Shpend Ahmeti, on Wednesday became the new leader of the Social Democratic Party, PSD, which he and a number of other MPs joined after leaving the main opposition Vetevendosje party.

Pristina's mayor Shpend Ahmeti resigned from the main Kosovo opposition party, Vetevendosje, late on Wednesday, several months after he won his second mandate as its mayoral candidate - highighting serious internal problems within the party.

The leader of the junior coalition party in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia believes Athens and Skopje should settle the ongoing name dispute with an agreement of good-neighborly relations rather than putting the issue to a public referendum.

The parliament of Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) voted in principle the bill to expand the use of the Albanian language.

In favour of the bill voted 66 MPs (coming from the ruling Social Democratic Union/SDSM of Zoran Zaev and Ali Ahmeti’s DUI) while 41 MPs voted against (coming from VMRO-DPMNE’s main opposition party, Nikola Gruevski).

Two chief priorities of the new coalition government in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) are the resolution of a long-standing dispute with Greece over the Balkan state's official name and the country's accession to NATO with the acronym FYROM, the head of the coalition's junior partner, ethnic Albanian Ali Ahmeti, has told Kathimerini in an interview.

The governing coalition in FYROM may be dissolved after 100 days in office, if the new bill on a wider use of the Albanian language, is not approved, according to the Independent Balkan News Agency. This warning comes from the Alliance for Albanians, which has three seats in parliament and which enabled the formation of the government led by the social democrat MP, Zoran Zaev.