Following months of refusal, right-wing Macedonian President Gjorge Ivanov has given the leader of the Social Democrat SDSM party, Zoran Zaev, a mandate to form a coalition government – a decision welcomed by the EU. Until now Ivanov has refused to give Zaev a mandate, believing that a government composed of the SDSM and Albanian parties would damage the national unity of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM).
"We welcome the decision of President Ivanov to give the mandate to form a government to Mr Zaev as an important step in the process of government formation", High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini and European Commissioner for Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations Johannes Hahn stated in a press release. Mogherini and Hahn hoped that "this constructive spirit" would continue to prevail so that the country might finally come out of the political crisis.
"We expect now a swift formation of the government committed to implementing all parts of the (political) Przino agreement and the urgent reform priorities", Mogherini and Hahn said, calling on all the parliamentary parties to put their divisions aside and work jointly on a common reform agenda, to bring the country back on its Euro-Atlantic integration path.
Mogherini and Hahn stated that they were ready to support the new government in its reform efforts. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)