February 23 (SeeNews) - The leader of the Socialist Democratic Union of Macedonia (SDSM), Zoran Zaev, said on Thursday his party has reached an agreement with the ethnic Albanian parties on key issues regarding the governance of the country, and a new cabinet will be formed within the next 10-15 days.
Last month, the conservative VMRO-DPMNE, which won a close victory against SDSM in the December early election, failed to agree with ethnic Albanian party DUI on the formation of a coalition government after talks stumbled over the official use of the Albanian language in the country, among other issues.
SDSM has agreed with the ethnic Albanian parties on the government's programme, party programmes and the law on the language use, Zaev said in a statement posted on his party's website.
VMRO-DPMNE controls 51 of 120 seats in parliament, while SDSM has 49. DUI has 10 seats, while the other three ethnic Albanian parties which entered parliament control 10 seats among themselves.
The early elections in December were part of a EU-brokered deal that aimed to resolve a protracted political crisis. The crisis began in January 2015, when Zaev accused the coalition government of VMRO-DPMNE and DUI of corruption, illegal wiretapping of more than 20,000 people and covering-up a murder. In response, the government charged Zaev with attempting to destabilize the country.