FYROM's Crisis May Lead to Country's Disintegration

FYROM (Macedonia) is sinking deeper and deeper into a severe political and institutional crisis. Three months on from snap parliamentary elections held in December, a new government still hasn't been formed. Speaking to Sputnik, Svetin Chilimanov, former advisor to the Macedonian president, warned that the crisis may lead to the country's disintegration.

Last week, Macedonian President Gjorge Ivanov officially refused to give the Social Democratic Union of Macedonia-led coalition a mandate to form a government, accusing SDUM leader Zoran Zaev of jeopardizing the country's sovereignty.

The SDUM, which came in second in December's elections, began talks with the Albanian minority Democratic Union for Integration (DUI) party after the Christian Democratic VMRO-DPMNE, the other of Macedonia's two major parties, failed to secure a coalition with the DUI in late January...