Macedonia’s
conservative VMRO-DPMNE party said on Monday it had failed to reach
agreement on a new coalition government with ethnic Albanians and called
for fresh elections.
VMRO-DPMNE
leader Nikola Gruevski, prime minister from 2006 to 2016, was handed
the mandate on Jan. 9 to form a new government after narrowly winning a
December election. [nB4N1AQ025]
“VMRO-DPMNE
informs the public that a coalition agreement with the DUI (Democratic
Union of Integration) has not been reached,” the party said in a
statement overnight. “We think the most mature solution would be new
elections.”
It
was not yet known whether President Gjeorge Ivanov would pass the
mandate to Gruevski’s rival, Zoran Zaev, as leader of the second-placed
Social Democrats or move to call a new election.
