President Stevo Pendarovski, who was elected on the joint SDSM – DUI ticket, acknowledged that this coalition no longer has majority in Parliament.

In his first remarks after the scandalous events in the Parliament on Thursday, where an opposition representative was apparently held hostage and prevented from casting the decisive vote to bring down the Zaev Government, Pendarovski said that the situation in the legislative body is a stalemate, or rather 50 – 50.

If that representative, Kastriot Rexhepi, is “persuaded” to join SDSM and DUI, they would still have on 60 votes, against 60 for the opposition. It’s possible that Zaev manages to similarly “persuade” the Alternative party to join him and provide him a small margin of a few votes.

Pendarovski evaded answering whether early elections would be a good way out of the crisis. He was also evasive over whether he will use what is frequently the role of the President to bring the leaders of the feuding parties together.