Democratic Union for Integration

EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini urged President Gjorge Ivanov to reconsider handing out to social democrat leader Zoran Zaev to form a new government.

The EU and NATO are putting pressure on Skopje to accept the demands of neighboring Tirana and change its constitution, which would have a destabilizing effect on the Republic of Macedonia (FYROM).

A new body called the "Civic Initiative for United Macedonia", urged ethnic Macedonians to attend a rally at 5pm Monday in front of the parliament in Skopje, in defence of Macedonia's allegedly endangered national interests. 

Zoran Zaev, head of Macedonia's main opposition party, the Social Democratic Union, SDSM, was expected to obtain a mandate to form the country's new government on Monday after claiming the support of 67 of parliament's 120 MPs.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has issued a statement suggesting Macedonia should go on with the formation of a new government.

His message, published on NATO's website, comes as a coalition is yet to be forged two months after an early election, with the second-biggest party SDSM saying it has enough signatures to ask the President for a government mandate.

At a meeting which took place on Saturday afternoon, the party's central presidency formally nominated Zaev to run for prime minister. Zaev will go on to claim the mandate to form a new government from the head of state, President Gjorge Ivanov.

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.

After a meeting on Wednesday night, the Democratic Union for Integration, DUI, confirmed that one key obstacle to backing a new opposition Social Democrat-led government - a new law extending the use of the Albanian language - had been removed.

The ethnic Albanian parties involved in organizing a planned roundtable of Albanian leaders, which is designed to oversee fulfillment of the objectives of the parties' joint declaration, have traded blamed over its failure to take shape.

More than two months after the December election, the issue of Albanian language demands remains the main stumbling block between the opposition Social Democrats, SDSM, and the ethnic Albanian Democratic Union for Integration, DUI, in their talks on forming a new government.