Either SDSM support for DUI candidates in Tetovo, Gostivar, Struga, Kicevo, Cair in the first round of elections or holding early parliamentary elections along with the local elections because DUI leader Ali Ahmeti will break up the government coalition. Ahmeti will put this on the table in front of the government partner Zoran Zaev at the meeting that is to be held this week, a senior DUI official told Plusinfo.

The threat follows after first, the smaller government partner Besa, unofficially issued an ultimatum that they will leave the Government if Zaev supports Ahmeti in the first round of elections for those municipalities and after the SDSM leader announced today that he is seriously in play in Tetovo and several other municipalities important for Albanians, to nominate their own candidates for mayors.

Whether the Albanian partners are building positions before the final agreement for participation in the local elections through ultimatums or whether they are serious in their intention to dissolve the Government will be clearer after the meeting between Zaev and Ahmeti. Plusinfo has already announced that Zaev will have troubles with his Albanian partners regarding support in the local elections.

On the other hand, a senior SDSM official told Plusinfo that talks are underway with academician Abdulmenaf Bexheti and businessman Lulzim Destani as a candidate for mayor of Tetovo nominated by the Social Democrats. In that case, the comment of the official is for whom the citizens of Tetovo will vote for Teuta Arifi from DUI, Bilal Kasami from Besa or for Bexheti or possibly Destani.

That the local elections will complicate the relations of the government partners is more than clear, it is uncertain what Zaev and Ahmeti will decide, ie whether the battle for the municipal sheriffs will be stronger than the survival of the Government.