Democratic Union for Integration

Macedonia's main ruling party, VMRO DPMNE, says Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski has launched a new initiative to end the years-long stalemate over a national headcount.

The DPA’s central presidency said this weekend that it would not become part of the new government led by Nikola Gruevski that is to be officially elected in parliament on Thursday.

The party said it did not believe that Gruevski and his allies, who led the last government, could make a breakthrough on the country's priority issues.

The schools at the centre of the dispute in mainly Albanian areas of the capital, which were renamed in a move that was seen by Macedonians as an ethnic provocation, hope that the incoming education minister in the new government, himself an Albanian, will resolve the issue.

The 33 MPs from the opposition Social Democratic Party, SDSM, the Liberal Democrats, LDP, and the New Social Democrats, NSDP, have submitted formal resignations to the speaker of parliament.

They dispute the legitimacy of the April general and presidential elections and attribute the victory of Nikola Gruevski's VMRO DPMNE party to fraud.

The inaugural session in parliament on Monday was held in a half-empty hall, with almost the entire opposition and the junior ruling Albanian party, the Democratic Union for Integration, DUI, refusing to attend.

Political parties in Macedonia have reached an agreement on the country's new cabinet more than two weeks after the country held 2-in-1 elections.

Newly elected opposition legislators did not appear on Wednesday at the State Electoral Commission, SEC, to receive their certificates to sit in the 123-member parliament.

The first round of inter-party talks aimed at forming the new government led by Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski were held at the weekend but were shrouded in secrecy, with both sides remaining silent about what was discussed.

Zoran Zaev, head of the opposition Social Democrats, SDSM, said the party stood by its decision not to take up the 34 seats it won in the 123-seat parliament in last Sunday’s elections.

Transparency International – Macedonia said it was filing criminal charges against the ruling VMRO DPMNE party and its junior government partner, the Democratic Union for Integration, DUI.