March 1 (SeeNews) - Macedonia's president said on Wednesday he would not give the leader of the Socialist Democratic Union of Macedonia (SDSM), Zoran Zaev, a mandate to form a coalition government over concerns that it would jeopardize the country's sovereignty.
Earlier this week Zaev, whose party came in second in the December early election, secured parliamentary majority to form a government after reaching an agreement with the ethnic Albanian parties on key issues regarding the governance of the country, including the use of the Albanian language in Macedonia. The deal came after the election winner, the conservative VMRO-DPMNE, failed to agree with the ethnic Albanian party DUI on forming a coalition government.
"The process of post-election coalescing and the formation of a new government has become hostage to a post-election platform devised by a foreign country," president Gjorge Ivanov said, adding that this platform threatens Macedonia's sovereignty and independence.
The platform, to which Ivanov refers, is a declaration by three of the country's four Albanian parties on the terms under which they would take part in a coalition government. One of these conditions concerns the official use of the Albanian language alongside the Macedonian. The document was drafted and signed by the three ethnic Albanian parties after consultations with Albania's prime minister Edi Rama and foreign minister Ditmir Bushati.