Macedonia may overcome gov't crisis

Macedonia may overcome gov't crisis

The Democratic Party of Albanians (DPA) said late yesterday that it would leave the coalition after reports that Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski had reached a deal to end a parliamentary boycott by the DPA’s chief Albanian rivals, the opposition Democratic Union for Integration (DUI).

Gruevski later said only a tentative agreement had been reached, and that the DPA had been kept informed of the details.

A walkout by the DPA would end Gruevski’s slim majority in the 120-seat parliament and force him to look for other partners or call a snap election less than a year since taking office.

Gruevski has been under intense pressure from the European Union to reach out to the DUI, Macedonia’s largest Albanian party, made up of ex-guerrillas who fought an insurgency in 2001 for greater rights for the 25% Albanian minority.

The DUI found itself in opposition last year for the first time since the conflict. It has been boycotting parliament over Gruevski’s decision to form a coalition with the smaller DPA, a move the DUI branded a betrayal of the Albanian vote.

The West is anxious to avoid instability in Macedonia as the UN nears a decision, probably in 2007, on whether to give Albanians in neighboring Kosovo the independence they demand from Serbia after eight years of UN administration.

Macedonia’s 2001 insurgency, led by DUI leader Ali Ahmeti, ended in a Western-brokered deal offering the country’s roughly 500,000 Albanians greater rights and representation.