EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini urged President Gjorge Ivanov to reconsider handing out to social democrat leader Zoran Zaev to form a new government.
Political tensions have reached a new high over the past few days as Ivanov refused to give SDSM head Zoran Zaev a mandate to fork a government together with three ethnic Albanian parties including the biggest one, the Democratic Union for Integration (DUI).
Mogherini warned that the political crisis might turn into an ethnic or geopolitical conflict. Earlier, Ivanov had said he could not give Zaev the mandate as the "Albanian platform", which he had embraced, was created in another state, with Albanian parties having forged it in Tirana.
Russia's Embassy to Skopje meanwhile slammed efforts of Western Ambassadors and other officials to advise the President as a blatant interference that only deepens the crisis.