VMRO-DPMNE President Hristijan Mickoski informed the public today that the party already has 61 votes in Parliament, following talks with representatives of other smaller groups. Mickoski did not disclose which parties or representatives have approached him, but there are numerous options given the fragmented nature of many of the losing sides in the elections. VMRO-DPMNE has 58 seats on its own and is hoping to win one more after re-votes due to irregularities in the 5th electoral district – it takes 61 votes to form a Government.

I can say that our coalition “Your Macedonia” is completing talks with several members of Parliament from outside of our coalition. And I can say that we are at the moment successfully consolidated to 61 votes. I can’t talk about the details, as it is a sensitive matter, but they will be made public very soon. But I can confirm that, on top of the 58 votes that we have on our own, and we are expecting a decision from the Administrative Court on voting in districts 5 and 6, but I can say that we have exactly 61 votes, said Mickoski, before noting that this will not affect on-going talks with the Albanian VLEN coalition.

VMRO-DPMNE and VLEN teams held their first meeting today to discuss their future cooperation and the division of responsibilities in the next Government. With VLEN, which is also hoping to enlarge its group in Parliament with representatives eager to leave their coalition with their rival DUI, VMRO would have well over 70 votes. Mickoski said that he is working toward forming a Government that would have 80 seats, necessary to amend the Constitution and rewrite systemic laws, which would allow him to greatly reorganize the Government. For this, the VMRO-VLEN coalition would need the votes of the ZNAM party, or, in case of complete collapse of the SDSM and DUI coalitions, it could negotiate with a number of smaller parties.