The EU High Representative Federica Mogherini asked Thursday the Macedonian President, Gjorge Ivanov to entrust the mandate to form the new government to Zoran Zaev, who represents the majority in Macedonian parliament.

“I asked the President to reflect on the way forward, to reverse his decision in the interest of all citizens of this country; and as the Constitution says, I quote: “entrust the mandate to a candidate belonging to the party which has the majority in the Assembly.”,” Mogherini said, speaking to reporters following the long meeting with President.

“This is the Constitution of this country and we expect this Constitution to be respected,” she said.

Mogherini also warned all political leaders and all those who have institutional responsibilities to scale down the rhetoric and “avoid that this political and institutional crisis becomes an inter-ethnic conflict, or even worse a geopolitical conflict”.

 She said that Macedonia was a complex country in a complex region and in really complex times. “We do not need fuel, because we have quite some fire already.”

 Mogherini said that Macedonia is not exposed to external threats but to some serious internal problems and it is up to the leaders of this country to take responsibility and to bring the country out of this.

The comments came, a day after President Gjeorge Ivanov said he cannot give the mandate to form a government to the social Democrats (SDSM) leader Zoran Zaev, who refrained to denounce the so-called Albanian platform.

“Neither the Constitution not my conscience allow me to give the mandate to somebody who threatens the sovereignty and the integrity of the Republic of Macedonia,” he said.

The main condition of Albanian parties to give their support for the new government has been declaring the Albanian language as the second official language of Macedonia. Ivanov accused that this platform was Tirana’s platform./tvklan.al