The leaders of SDSM and DUI Zoran Zaev and Ali Ahmeti are scheduled to meet at 14h to make a final deal in their coalition talks. Both parties yesterday said that they have made serious progress in their talks, without revealing whether SDSM will accept the key DUI request – that an ethnic Albanian is named Prime Minister, at least for a portion of the mandate.

Zaev and Ahmeti met several times so far, and Zaev received the mandate late last week. Together the two parties would have the bare minimum of 61 votes in Parliament – 62 if the small DPA party joins them. It’s unclear whether Zaev would try to increase the majority of the coalition, given the serious difficulties it would have operating with such a narrow mandate.