SKOPJE, May 17 (Xinhua) -- Zoran Zaev, the leader of SDSM party, has become the new Macedonian prime minister-designate after he received a mandate to form government on Wednesday.
President Gjorge Ivanov forwarded the mandate to Zaev more than five months after parliamentary elections in the country. "The obstacles that we had to give the mandate are now removed," Ivanov said in a short statement.
To get the chance to form government, Zaev had to offer an official signed statement with guarantees that the new government coalition will protect the unity, territorial integrity and multi-ethnicity of the country.
"No document, platform, declaration, act or action that will be contrary to these principles can be regarded as a condition or basis to form the government of the Republic of Macedonia," Zaev promised in a written guarantee to the president.
Ivanov previously refused to give the mandate to Zaev citing fears that the formation of new government coalition was conditioned to accepting the so-called "Platform from Tirana," drafted by ethnic Albanian parties and made public in Albanian capital.
According to the legal framework, Zaev now has 20 days to form the cabinet.
But Zaev promised a "swift formation of government in less than 10 days" in an attempt to allow the country to finally exit the deep political crisis.
"We will build one society for all. I call upon all of you to leave differences, hate and destructive policies aside. The new government will be a government of all citizens of the Republic of Macedonia. This day is a new beginning for the country," Zaev said on Wednesday.
But his task is not an easy one. At the last elections, his party SDSM got only 49 seats out of the 120-member parliament.
"VMRO DPMNE will closely follow Zaev's work and we will not allow that he steps aside from the guarantees he offered," Nikola Todorov, prominent member of VMRO DPMNE, which has 51 parliamentarian seats, said on Wednesday.
