SDSM party leader Zoran Zaev said that he will move quickly in August to put together a new Government. Zaev is currently on a vacation, but he insisted that as the results of the elections are being verified, he will “put together a coalition that will protect the treaties he signed with Greece and Bulgaria”.

Our election victory validates SDSM policies and the majority of voters supported our brave decision, while VMRO-DPMNE would bring us back into the dark past and would endanger our NATO membership and our EU integration, Zaev said.

The two main parties are virtually tied and have no clear shot at forming a Government. But in his comments for a news site Zaev insisted that SDSM has the best “coalition potential”, indicating that he can muster greater support among the ethnic Albanian parties.