Macedonian PM Gruevski Gets Mandate for New Cabinet

Macedonia`s President Gjorge Ivanov, (L), formally hands over credentials for new government to Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski (R), in the capital Skopje, Macedonia, on 28 June, 2011. EPA/BGNES

Nikola Gruevski, the incumbent Prime Minister of Macedonia, has received a mandate from the country's President Gjorge Ivanov to form a new Cabinet.

The mandate comes after Gruevski's center-right party VMRO-DPMNE won the parliamentary elections on June 5, 2011. Gruevski has 20 days to propose the new Cabinet of Macedonia.

In addition to VMRO-DPMNE, the Democratic Union for Integration, the largest ethnic Albanian party in Macedonia, led by Ali Ahmeti, will join the coalition government, as in the outgoing Cabinet.

The coalition talks between the two parties are expected to be concluded in the coming days.

Gruevski is the sixth PM of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia since it became independent in September 1991. He has been in charge of the Macedonian government since 2006, and the early elections on June 5, 2011, are the third consecutive elections he wins.

VMRO-DPMNE will have 56 out of 123 MPs in the Macedonian Parliament; the opposition Social-Democratic Union of Macedonia led by Branko Crvenkovski – 42; the Democratic Union for Integration – 15; the Democratic Party of Albanians led by Menduh Thaci – 8; the National Democratic Party of Rufi Osmani – 2.

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