Roundup: Macedonia's new gov't being formed amid conflict risks

The Democratic Union for Integration (DUI), which represents ethnic Albanians in Macedonia, Saturday officially decided to join the new government coalition led by the Social Democratic Union party (SDSM), while protests surged on the streets.

Analysts said the multiethnic country risked conflicts during the formation of the new government.

"The decision was unanimous. We had a long debate which is now concluded and we voted all in favor of the new government," DUI leader Ali Ahmeti announced early Saturday.

Macedonia held snap general elections on Dec. 11, 2016. The VMRO-DPMNE party secured 51 seats, the SDSM got 49, and the DUI obtained 10 in the new parliament.

Yet the SDSM and DUI, plus other two smaller ethnic Albanian parties,can have a majority of 67 seats in the 120-seat parliament and they are striving to form a new government.

President Gjorge Ivanov refused to give the mandate to form the government to SDSM leader Zoran Zaev, claiming that he is making unconstitutional consents to the ethnic Albanian parties in order to get the needed majority.

The Macedonian Constitution requests a mandate from the president to form a government, while some experts suggested that the new parliament majority might elect a government without the president's approval.

"Zaev, as a representative of the coalition, with the gathered 67 signatures from the MPs, might request the current Parliament Speaker to schedule a parliament session, at which new Parliament Speaker will be elected," Prof. Osman Kadriu told Xinhua in Skopje.

"Then he will schedule a new session where the new government will be elected. If the current speaker refuses to schedule the session, then the majority might call the most senior parliamentarian to do this," the professor on Macedonian Constitutional Law said.

But some of his colleagues warned that the attempt to work around Ivanov's approval to form the government would risk escalating tensions in the streets where the protests have lasted for days.

Constitutional Law Professor Tatjana Karakamisheva-Jovanovska said that the people on the streets might be forced to react because the new coalition attempted to neglect the highest legal act of the country.

"If the legal system fails, the people engage to protect the country against this treason being committed. We have to remember that in this country live other nationalities, not only Macedonians and Albanians," the professor added.

VMRO DPMNE saw the only solution to the crisis in immediate new elections.

Its leader Nikola Gruevski was given a mandate on Jan. 9 to form the new government, but failed as the DUI and other ethnic Albanian parties, formed a joint platform and presented seven requests, including the use of the Albanian language as a second official language in Macedonia.

"We have set our position since the beginning of the discussions -- we will have government but not regardless the cost. We refused to accept the joint platform of the Albanian parties ... The ultimate goal of this platform is to redefine Macedonia from multiethnic to a binational state," VMRO DPMNE said in a written statement.

The European Union has expressed concern about the developments in Macedonia. EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini visited Skopje on Thursday.

"All political leaders and everyone that holds institutional responsibility has a duty to withhold and soften the rhetoric in order to prevent that this institutional and political crisis turns into an interethnic or, what is even worse, geopolitical conflict," Mogherini said in Skopje.

The political uncertainty in the country is additionally fueled by the nearing deadline for the coming local elections on March 6. Endi