MACEDONIAN GOVERNMENT BEFORE FALL

SKOPJE, Nov 24 (Hina) - Macedonia's Government, led by Premier Ljupce Georgievski, on Friday faced a crisis after the Democratic Alternative (DA), a minor coalition partner in the Government, decided to join opposition Socialists and set up a new parliamentary majority that should in coming days cast the vote of no-confidence in the Georgievski Cabinet. A severe campaign against this government, which was launched a few months ago, resulted in the agreement which the DA leader, Vasil Tupurkovski and the leader of the opposition SDSM, Branko Crvenkovski, made on the establishment of a new parliamentary majority. The head of the SDSM (Social Democratic Alliance of Macedonia), which gathers former Communists, said his party would in coming days submit the motion of no confidence in the incumbent government. Sources close to the DA confirmed that this could happen in the course of this day. Tupurkovski, a Vice Premier of the incumbent government and Macedonia's chief negotiator at the talks with the European Union, did not arrive in Zagreb for today's summit owing to problems in the coalition government. For some time he has been criticising the Georgievski Cabinet for the halt in the democratic processes and in slowness in the implementation of economic reforms. During its session last Tuesday, the Macedonian Government dissolved a commission in charge of reforms, headed by a Croatian business man and ex-premier of the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY), Ante Markovic. The commission was set up two years ago at the proposal of Tupurkovski who was not present at the session when the decision on the revocation of that body was made. (hina) jn ms