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Politics in North Macedonia occur within the framework of a parliamentary representative democratic republic, whereby the Prime Minister is the head of government, and of a multi-party system. Executive power is exercised by the government. Legislative power is vested in both the government and parliament. The Judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature. The Economist Intelligence Unit rated North Macedonia a " flawed democracy " in 2022. [1] [ needs update ]
The political system of North Macedonia consists of three branches: Legislative, Executive and Judicial. The Constitution is the highest law of the country. [2] The political institutions are constituted by the will of its citizens by secret ballot at direct and general elections. Its political system of parliamentary democracy was established with the Constitution of 1991, which stipulates the basic principles of democracy and guarantees democratic civil freedom. The Elections for Representatives in the Assembly of North Macedonia is held in October. The Assembly is composed of 123 Representatives, who are elected for a period of four years. Out of this number, 120 are elected proportionally in 6 constituencies of 20 each, and 3 according to the majority principle, specifically for the diaspora (depending on turnout) (the territory of the Republic of North Macedonia representing one constituency). There are approximately 1.5 million voters registered in the General Electoral Roll for the election of Representatives in the Assembly of North Macedonia in 2.973 polling stations. The voting for the representatives is conducted according to the list system. [3]
Office | Name | Party | Since |
---|---|---|---|
President | VMRO-DPMNE | 12 May 2024 | |
Prime Minister | VMRO-DPMNE | 23 June 2024 |
The power of the president is fairly limited with all other executive power being vested in what the Constitution describes as the government, i.e., the prime minister and ministers.
Ministers:
The current cabinet is a coalition of VMRO-DPMNE, the VLEN, and ZNAM. [5] The members of the Cabinet of North Macedonia are chosen by the Prime Minister and approved by the Assembly, however certain cabinet level positions are chosen by both President and Prime Minister, and approved by the Assembly.
Current government as of 23 June 2024
Member | Portfolio | Macedonio |
---|---|---|
Hristijan Mickoski | Prime Minister | |
Izet Mexhiti | Deputy Prime Minister in charge of Environment and Physical Planning, Minister without Portfolio | ![]() |
Ljupco Dimovski | Deputy Prime Minister in charge of Framework Agreement Implementation, Political system, Minister without Portfolio | ![]() |
Ivan Stoilković | Deputy Prime Minister in charge of Community Relations, Minister without Portfolio | ![]() |
Orhan Murtenzai | Deputy Prime Minister in charge of European Integration, Minister without Portfolio | ![]() |
Arben Fetaj | Deputy Prime Minister in charge of Good Governance Policies, Minister without Portfolio | ![]() |
Aleksandar Nikolovski | Deputy Prime Minister in charge of Transport and Communication | ![]() |
Timčo Mucunski | Minister of Foreign Affairs | ![]() |
Vlado Misajlovski | Minister of Defense | |
Panče Toshkovski | Minister of Internal Affairs | |
Gordana Dimitrievska Kočovska | Minister of Finance | |
Igor Filkov | Minister of Justice | ![]() |
Cvetan Tripunovski | Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Supply | ![]() |
Fatmir Levani | Minister of Economy | ![]() |
Arben Taravari | Minister of Health | ![]() |
Vesna Janevska | Minister of Education and Science | ![]() |
Borko Ristovski | Minister of Sport | ![]() |
Stefan Andonovski | Minister of Digital Transformation | ![]() |
Goran Minčev | Minister of Information Society and Administration | ![]() |
Zlatko Perinski | Minister of Local Self-Government | ![]() |
Zoran Lyutkov | Minister of Culture | ![]() |
Gjoko Velkovski | Minister of Labor and Social Policy | ![]() |
Elvin Hasan | Minister without Portfolio for Attracting foreign investment | ![]() |
Xhemail Çupi | Minister without Portfolio | ![]() |
Zoran Sapurić | Minister without Portfolio to improve investment climate for domestic enterprises | ![]() |
Anita Angelovska-Bežoska | Governor of the National Bank of the Republic of North Macedonia | |
Ljupco Švrgovski | Attorney General | ![]() |
Vasko Gjurčinovski | Chief of the General Staff of the Army of the Republic of North Macedonia | ![]() |
The Assembly (Sobranie) has 120 members, elected for a four-year term, by proportional representation. There are between 120 and 140 seats, currently there are 120; members are directly elected in multi-seat constituencies by closed list proportional representation vote. There is a possibility of three people being directly elected in diaspora constituencies by a simple majority vote provided there is sufficient voter turnout.
The election resulted in a landslide victory for the national conservative VMRO-DPMNE and its Your Macedonia coalition, winning 58 seats in the Sobranie, just three shy of an outright majority. Their main rivals, the incumbent pro-European SDSM and its For a European Future coalition, ended up in distant third place, winning 18 seats, their worst ever result. All other parties and coalitions that won seats include: the European Front coalition with 18 seats and the VLEN Coalition with 14 seats (both representing national minorities), the left-wing nationalist The Left with six seats, as well as the left-wing populist For Our Macedonia Movement (ZNAM) with six seats. [8] Turnout was 55%. While initially allocated 19 and 13 seats respectively, following repollings in Ohrid, Struga and other areas on 22 May 2024 led to the European Front losing one seat in favor of the VLEN coalition allowing SDSM and its For a European Future coalition to become the second biggest group in the Assembly. [9]
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---|---|---|---|---|---|
Party | Votes | % | Seats | +/– | |
Your Macedonia [a] [b] | 436,407 | 44.58 | 58 | +14 | |
For a European Future [c] [d] | 154,447 | 15.78 | 18 | –28 | |
European Front [e] [f] | 137,690 | 14.06 | 18 | +3 | |
VLEN Coalition [g] [h] | 106,937 | 10.92 | 14 | +2 | |
The Left | 68,637 | 7.01 | 6 | +4 | |
For Our Macedonia | 56,232 | 5.74 | 6 | New | |
Brave for Macedonia [i] | 4,522 | 0.46 | 0 | –1 | |
New Alternative | 3,515 | 0.36 | 0 | 0 | |
Abaja | 2,908 | 0.30 | 0 | New | |
Your Party | 1,794 | 0.18 | 0 | 0 | |
United Macedonia | 1,688 | 0.17 | 0 | New | |
Homeland Macedonia | 1,099 | 0.11 | 0 | New | |
Macedonian Era Third – Sovereignists | 966 | 0.10 | 0 | New | |
Democrats Skopje | 912 | 0.09 | 0 | 0 | |
The Right | 535 | 0.05 | 0 | New | |
Labour Party | 450 | 0.05 | 0 | 0 | |
European Civic Movement | 241 | 0.02 | 0 | New | |
Total | 978,980 | 100.00 | 120 | 0 | |
Valid votes | 978,980 | 97.27 | |||
Invalid/blank votes | 27,451 | 2.73 | |||
Total votes | 1,006,431 | 100.00 | |||
Registered voters/turnout | 1,815,350 | 55.44 | |||
Source: SEC |
Judiciary power is exercised by courts, with the court system being headed by the Judicial Supreme Court, Constitutional Court [10] and the Republican Judicial Council. The assembly appoints the judges, of which there are 22 in the Supreme Court, and 9 in the Constitutional Court. Supreme Court judges nominated by the Judicial Council, a 7-member body of legal professionals, and appointed by the Assembly; Constitutional Court judges appointed by the Assembly for nonrenewable, 9-year terms
With the passage of a new law and elections held in 2005, local government functions are divided between 78 municipalities (општини, opštini; singular: општина, opština. The capital, Skopje, is governed as a group of ten municipalities collectively referred to as "the City of Skopje". Municipalities in North Macedonia are units of local self-government. Neighbouring municipalities may establish cooperative arrangements.
The country's main political divergence is between the largely ethnically based political parties representing the country's Macedonian majority and Albanian minority. The issue of the power balance between the two communities led to a brief war in 2001, following which a power-sharing agreement was reached. In August 2004, the Republic's parliament passed legislation redrawing local boundaries and giving greater local autonomy to ethnic Albanians in areas where they predominate.
North Macedonia is member of the ACCT, BIS, CE, CEI, EAPC, EBRD, ECE, FAO, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICCt, ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, ISO, ITU, NATO, OPCW, OSCE, PCA, PFP, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UPU, WCL, WCO, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTrO
Most notable relations with other countries include: Greece, China the US and Kosovo amongst others.
North Macedonia and Greece have excellent economic, trade and business relations, with Greece being the largest investor in the country[ citation needed ]. Until the Prespa Agreement (2018), the indeterminate status of North Macedonia's former name arose from a long-running dispute with Greece. The main points of the dispute were: The flag: the use of Vergina Sun, a Greek state symbol[ citation needed ], on the initial national flag used between 1992 and 1995 Constitutional issues: certain articles of the constitution that were seen as claims on Greek territory[ citation needed ]. The naming issue was "parked" in a compromise agreed at the United Nations in 1993. However, Greece refused to grant diplomatic recognition to the Republic and imposed an economic blockade that lasted until the flag and constitutional issues were resolved in 1995 with the Interim Accord. The naming dispute was resolved with the Prespa Agreement, which was signed in 2018 and entered into force in February 2019.
The United States and North Macedonia enjoy excellent bilateral relations. [11] The United States formally recognised North Macedonia on 8 February 1994, and the two countries established full diplomatic relations on 13 September 1995. The U.S. Liaison Office was upgraded to an embassy in February 1996, and the first U.S. Ambassador to Skopje arrived in July 1996. The development of political relations between the United States and North Macedonia has ushered in a whole host of other contacts between the two states. In 2004, the United States recognised the country under its constitutional name of that time – Republic of Macedonia.
On 12 October 1993, the Government of the Republic of North Macedonia and the Government of the People's Republic of China (PRC) established diplomatic relations with North Macedonia expressly declaring that the Government of the PRC is the sole legal government of China, and Taiwan as an inalienable part of the Chinese territory. The Government of North Macedonia affirmed it would not establish any form of official relations with Taiwan. [12]
The Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization – Democratic Party for Macedonian National Unity, abbreviated as VMRO-DPMNE, is a conservative and the main centre-right to right-wing political party in North Macedonia.
The Social Democratic Union of Macedonia is a social democratic political party, and the main centre-left party in North Macedonia. The party is pro-European.
The Democratic Union for Integration is the largest ethnic Albanian political party in North Macedonia and the third largest political party in the country. It was formed immediately after the country's 2001 armed conflict between the National Liberation Army and Macedonian security forces. NLA founder Ali Ahmeti has been the party's president ever since.
The Liberal Party of Macedonia was a conservative-liberal political party in North Macedonia. The party was a member of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party. Its last chairman was Ivon Velichkovski.
The Democratic Party of Turks of Macedonia is a political party of the Turkish minority in North Macedonia. In the 2002 parliamentary elections, the party joined the SDSM-led coalition and won 2 seats. In the 2006 parliamentary elections, it joined the SDSM-led coalition and won 2 parliamentary seats. The Party was a part of the VMRO-DPMNE coalition for 8 years from 2008 to 2016. The Party has one member, Yusuf Hasani, in the Macedonian parliament. The party did participate in a coalition with SDSM-Besa in the 2020 parliamentary elections. The party did participate in a coalition with European Front-Democratic Union for Integration in the 2024 parliamentary elections.
The Socialist Party of Macedonia is a political party in North Macedonia founded on 22 September 1990 as a successor to the Socialist Alliance of Working People of Yugoslavia. The SPM proclaims itself to be a left-wing democratic socialist party. The SPM was part of the coalition governments from 1992 to 1998, led by the SDSM.
The Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization – People's Party, shortened as VMRO – People's Party and VMRO–NP, is a national-conservative political party in North Macedonia, founded by the former Prime Minister Ljubčo Georgievski, who split from the VMRO–DPMNE. The VMRO–NP was founded in Skopje on 4 July 2004. Vesna Janevska was elected as the party's first chairwoman. It is among the smaller parties of the country.
The Assembly of the Republic of North Macedonia, Sobranie, or Kuvendi is the unicameral legislature of North Macedonia. According to the Constitution, the Sobranie represents the people and is vested with legislative power. It can have between 120 and 140 MPs, elected by proportional representation from 6 electoral districts, each contributing 20 MPs, and there are also 3 reserved seats elected from the Macedonian diaspora which are awarded only if the voter turnout was sufficient. MPs are elected for a term of four years and cannot be recalled during their term. The Sobranie is presided over by a President. Its organization and functioning are regulated by the Constitution and Rules of Procedure. The Assembly's seat is in the Sobranie Palace in country's capital Skopje.
Parliamentary elections were held in Macedonia on 5 July 2006. The VMRO-DPMNE-led coalition emerged as the largest group in the Assembly, winning 45 of the 120 seats. Its leader Nikola Gruevski became Prime Minister after forming a coalition government with the Democratic Party of Albanians, New Social Democratic Party, Democratic Renewal and the Party for a European Future.
Early parliamentary elections were held in Macedonia on 1 June 2008, after the Assembly voted to dissolve itself on 12 April 2008. The result was a victory for the VMRO-DPMNE-led alliance, which won 63 of the 120 seats in the Assembly.
Early parliamentary elections were held in the Republic of Macedonia on 5 June 2011, a year earlier than necessary. All 123 parliamentary seats of the Sobranie were due for election, including the 3 seats provided for the first time for representatives of the Macedonian citizens living abroad: 1 from Europe, 1 from North America, and 1 from Asia and Australia. The decision of the ruling parties, the Christian Democratic VMRO-DPMNE and the ethnic Albanian Democratic Union for Integration (DUI), to dissolve the Parliament and call for an early election was preceded by protests of the Social Democratic Union (SDSM), the major opposition party, and subsequent boycott of the Parliament by them, and by other smaller opposition parties.
The sixth local elections for the election of local mayors of the municipalities of the Republic of Macedonia and members of municipality councils were held on schedule in 2013. There were two large coalitions on the elections: the Coalition for a Better Macedonia led by VMRO-DPMNE and the Union for the Future led by SDSM. Also present on the elections was the Democratic Union for Integration (DUI), Democratic Party of Albanians (DPA) and the Union of Roma Forces. There was also coalition made between the two major rival parties VMRO-DPMNE and SDSM in Kičevo and Struga municipalities against the ethnic Albanian candidates Fatmir Dehari and Ramiz Merko of DUI. There were two rounds in the elections on March 24, 2013 and April 7, 2013. The first round of elections were declared the most peaceful elections in the history of independent Macedonia without any serious incidents. The elections were however not untainted, as the situation in the Centar Municipality was labeled as undemocratic by the Macedonian opposition with several voters being labeled as questionable for having only recently received their national ID cards and not being actual inhabitants of this respective municipality. The elections in this municipality lasted for three turns and were monitored by the foreign embassies.
General elections[a] were held in the Republic of Macedonia in April 2014 to elect the President and members of parliament. The first round of the presidential elections were held on 13 April, with incumbent president Gjorge Ivanov finishing first with 53% of the vote. However, as he did not receive the support of 50% of all registered voters, a second round was held on 27 April, alongside parliamentary elections, with Ivanov and the ruling coalition led by VMRO-DPMNE claiming victory as Ivanov was elected president and the VMRO-DPMNE won 61 of the 123 seats in the Assembly.
The Party for the Full Emancipation of the Roma of Macedonia is a political party in North Macedonia representing the Roma minority.
Early parliamentary elections were held in Macedonia on 11 December 2016, having originally been planned for 24 April and later 5 June.
Storming of the Macedonian Parliament, also known as Bloody Thursday occurred on 27 April 2017, when about 200 Macedonian nationalists stormed the Macedonian Parliament in reaction to the election of Talat Xhaferi, an ethnic Albanian, as Speaker of the Assembly of the Republic of Macedonia. It was the biggest attack in history on a Macedonian institution.
Presidential elections were held in North Macedonia in 2019. Three candidates were on the ballot in the first round, held on 21 April: Stevo Pendarovski, supported by the ruling coalition led by the Social Democratic Union of Macedonia, including the Democratic Union for Integration; Gordana Siljanovska-Davkova of the leading opposition party VMRO-DPMNE, and Blerim Reka, an independent supported by Albanian opposition parties Alliance for Albanians and Besa Movement. The first round did not result in an absolute majority for any candidate, with Pendarovski receiving the most votes. In the second round held on 5 May, Pendarovski defeated Siljanovska-Davkova with 54% of the vote.
Early parliamentary elections were held in North Macedonia on 15 July 2020. It was originally scheduled for November 2020, but Prime Minister Zoran Zaev called early elections after the European Council failed to come to an agreement on starting talks with North Macedonia on joining the European Union in October 2019. The election date was set for 12 April, but was postponed until July due to the COVID-19 pandemic in North Macedonia.
Parliamentary elections were held in North Macedonia on 8 May 2024. The slow pace of EU integration and corruption were the main issues during the campaign.