Macedonian elections spell start of new crisis, former prime minister says

The snap parliamentary elections in Macedonia were not necessary at all, even a luxury of sorts, former Macedonian prime minister Ljubcho Georgievski told private Bulgarian broadcaster Nova TV's Koritarov Live morning talk show, as quoted by Focus news agency.

Georgievski said that Macedonia had wasted precious time before Nato's summit in Bucharest at the beginning of April 2008 and then until July to finalise talks with Greece on the name dispute between the two, which would allow Skopje to secure a belated invitation to the alliance. According to Georgievski, these elections delayed the date of Macedonia's accession to Nato and the date for starting negotiations with the European Union.

VMRO-DPMNE's convincing victory would not bring anything new to Macedonia since the federative principle of cabinet formation has long existed in the country, Georgievski said. He also forecast that choosing one of the Albanian parties as a coalition partner would lead to “radicalising the other Albanian party”.

Georgievski said that Macedonia was yet to overcome the political crisis of 2001, which erupted when he was VMRO-DPMNE leader and prime minister, as the two basic issues - the dispute with Greece over the name of the country and the requests of the Albanians in Macedonia - were still unsolved. He added that the elections gave reason for a new list of requests by the ethnic Albanian minority in Macedonia, which could lead “even to the gradual break-up of the Macedonian statehood”.

“We could say these elections are the beginning of a new state crisis for the Republic of Macedonia,” Georgievski said.