VMRO-DPMNE

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).

President Gjorge Ivanov has staged a coup d'etat by refusing to hand the government mandate to social-democrat SDSM party, its leader Zoran Zaev has said.

"Ivanov has thrown Macedonia into a deep crisis with unimaginable consequences on citizens and on the state," news website MKD.mk quotes him as saying.

Macedonian (FYROM) President Gjorge Ivanov on Wednesday announced he would not give opposition SDSM leader Zoran Zaev a mandate to put together a new government.

"Neither my conscience nor the Constitution allow me to do that," Ivanov said.

BIRN journalists have been targeted on social networks in Macedonia in connection to Tuesday's attacks on journalist and cameraman in Skopje who were beaten up while covering a pro-VMRO DPMNE rally.

After BIRN Macedonia journalists published news and tweeted about the attack some Twitter users with generic nicknames accused BIRN journalists of being traitors and mercenaries.

Nikola Gruevski has offered to support a minority government led by the SDSM if its leader gave up on implementing the so-called Tirana Platform.

According to the MIA agency, former Macedonian PM Gruevski, the leader of the VMRO-DPMNE party, thinks the platform in question "could fundamentally change Macedonia and lead to divisions along ethnic lines."

The leader of the social democrat SDSM party in Macedonia is to ask the President for a mandate to form a government after shaking hands with ethnic Albanian party DUI, local media report.

At a meeting on Saturday, the SDSM has unanimously picked Zoran Zaev as the mandate bearer candidate.

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.

Macedonia's ruling VMRO DPMNE party has dismissed accusations that a poster for a state-funded historical documentary it issued over the weekend with the slogan "Sometimes with Politeness, Sometimes with a Knife" was actually a call for political violence against its opponents.

Following a day of meetings with leaders of the main political parties, Macedonia's President said he wanted proof of a parliamentary majority before handing any party or alliance a mandate to form a government.

BELGRADE - Macedonia's (FYROM) president on Monday resumed the search for a new prime minister after the former premier failed to form a government, despite his party's narrow election victory, EurActiv.com reports.

The December vote was held as part of a European Union-brokered deal between Macedonia's four main political parties aimed at ending a long-running political crisis.