VMRO-DPMNE President Hristijan Mickoski said that the party will begin talks to form the next governing coalition. He said that there is no possibility that the candidates elected on the VMRO ticked cross over to support an SDSM Government – on the contrary, he expects votes to move in the opposite direction.

VMRO-DPMNE will try to form a parliamentary majority based on our political philosophy, and not on horse-trading. I have endless trust in the people who were elected as part of the list for Renewal of Macedonia and I don’t believe there are those among them who would support Zaev’s program, Mickoski said.

VMRO and SDSM are essentially tied after the chaotic July 15 elections and none has a clear and easy shot at forming a Government. The Parliament convened today but there was no majority in place to elect a Speaker, which is usually the first step toward asserting that there is workable majority.

In the past Parliament, SDSM used the full weight of the judiciary and bribes to bring a dozen of members of Parliament elected on the VMRO ticket over to their side, some on a permanent basis and some for key votes such as the imposed renaming of Macedonia. VMRO excluded those in the group led by Saso Mijalkov who sided with Zaev from the party and participated in the July elections with a greatly changed roster of candidates.