"If President Ivanov does not give a mandate to the parliamentary majority to form a government within a 10-day period, we will regard it as a crime. He is obliged to do so, since the constitution and the legislation do not stipulate this lack of action," Dzaferi told the Croatian HRT channel.
Commenting on his position, Dzaferi said that he was a legitimate speaker of the Macedonian parliament, as he received a majority vote in parliament on April 27.
The political crisis in Macedonia grew worse after December 2016 early parliamentary elections resulted in Macedonia’s conservative VMRO-DPMNE party and opposition Social Democratic Union of Macedonia (SDSM) party winning 51 and 49 seats, respectively, thus failing to form a coalition government. The SDSM party leader Zoran Zaev agreed to form a coalition majority with the parties representing ethnic Albanians, while the country's president refused to give him a mandate to form a government.
In an open letter addressed to world leaders, Ivanov justified his position by the fact that the SDSM platform envisaged significant changes to the constitution in favor of Albanian minority, what would undermine the sovereignty of Macedonia.
