Opposition party wins North Macedonia elections, EU accession at risk

NOS News•today, 10:34

In North Macedonia, the presidential and parliamentary elections were won by the right-wing nationalist opposition party VMRO-DPMNE. 70-year-old Gordana Siljanovska-Davkova from that party will become the country’s new president. The result could influence accession to the European Union.

North Macedonia has been a candidate country for the EU since 2005 and is conducting accession talks after they were blocked for years by neighboring countries Greece and Bulgaria. The ruling pro-European social democratic party SDSM warned during the campaign that a VMRO-DPMNE victory would jeopardize its membership.

VMRO-DPMNE takes a hard line towards EU member states and neighboring countries Bulgaria and Greece. For example, party leader Hristijan Mickoski does not recognize the country’s name change. The Greeks do not want the country to be called Macedonia, because there is also a northern Greek region with that name. After a 27-year conflict, ‘North’ was added to the name of the country in 2018.

Mickoski has also promised to take tougher action against Bulgarian demands. Bulgaria wants North Macedonia to amend the constitution to protect the rights of the Bulgarian minority in the country and says it will otherwise block North Macedonia’s accession talks.

When more than 90 percent of the votes for the parliamentary elections had been counted, the election commission reported that VMRO-DPMNE had won at least 59 of the 120 seats. The ruling SDSM will get 19 seats.

After the Social Democrats acknowledged their loss, VMRO-DPMNE party leader Mickoski gave a victory speech: “We did it. Macedonia has won. It is a historic victory for the people,” he said. Mickoski is likely to become the country’s new prime minister.