The most important thing about the election day in North Macedonia is the fact that it took place in a peaceful and democratic atmosphere, and therefore the citizens won democratically held elections. The citizens channeled their dissatisfaction with the current government and democratically defeated the 30-year-old partisan state with pen in hand. However, we are facing a turbulent period for the country and therefore political unification is necessary, and VMRO-DPMNE has all the legitimacy and integrity to make decisions of national interest.
From an ideological point of view, the VMRO-DPMNE party and its future coalition are from the right-wing camp of ideology, thus following the trend of the Balkans for the election of parties in power that are from that provenance, because almost the entire region has right-oriented governments - Croatia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Greece and other…
Future Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski and VMRO-DPMNE and the Albanian coalition "Vlen" (I know) won more than enough mandates to form a new government. I believe they are aware that support comes from a body of people who are disillusioned with the lack of rule of law.
As the years passed, from the mandate of the government that is now going down in history, the social democratic party SDSM slowly got caught in the web of corruption, while Euro-Atlantic integration, thanks to first Greek and then Bulgarian pressures, remained stuck somewhere between Skopje and Brussels. All this resulted in Macedonian citizens being disappointed by the fact that during these seven years of SDSM's rule, the principle of impunity was at the highest possible limits, and the fight against corruption was absent, that is, it did not exist in any sense. And those two factors, which the citizens missed the most in the polls, received an answer in the elections. This is what the future prime minister told her in his speech, saying what the citizens want to hear and what they expect - that we should zealously fight against corruption and organized crime and develop the economy.
How to proceed in international relations?
However, in the second phase of reality, i.e. realpolitik, there follows the question of how to proceed in international relations and messages regarding the agreements that pave the way for North Macedonia to Europe. The future Macedonian government faces an extremely difficult task. Macedonians swallowed everything that could be swallowed about changing the name of their country just to become part of NATO. That victim was aware, the country's name was changed to ensure its safety, as part of the Alliance. This was done so that the Macedonian country does not become a new battlefield between great powers, as is the situation in Ukraine or Palestine.
However, as far as the EU accession dispute is concerned, I do not believe that the people are ready to make another big sacrifice. Namely, Bulgaria blocked the membership of North Macedonia in the EU, looking for an illogical victim. The political elite of Sofia, which is abusing its position in the EU, is not looking for some essential answers for joining the Union, but is looking for a review of history and changes to the Macedonian Constitution. Bulgaria wants their minority in North Macedonia to be included in the Constitution as a constituent nation, and that is not a problem, but the problem is that, in addition, they want to be recognized that they did not occupy Macedonia during the Second World War, that they were not aggressors and did war crimes than that they were "administrators" which is not historically based, that they did not participate in the genocide of Macedonian Jews and their deportation to camps in Poland and so on. Therefore, they are looking for some kind of historical revisionism that would absolve them of many things that are unacceptable in North Macedonia. But the Macedonians know that it is not the Bulgarian people who are asking for it, but the current government in that country. Other illogical conditions for joining the European Union are also being sought. For example, that Macedonians use the Bulgarian language in their country, and many other illogical things in Macedonian.
The problem is that the process of admission to EU membership is complicated, and North Macedonia is not sure that this is the end of Bulgarian conditions and that they can be increased in the coming years without any political logic. All of these illogical demands had the effect of strengthening Euroscepticism among the Macedonian people and damaging the neighborly relations with the Bulgarian state, with which they have a lot of good things in common and share a lot.
What I expect from the new government is a more systematic approach to solving the dispute with Bulgaria, greater transparency in negotiations with Brussels and Sofia, but also an attempt to improve the situation in international negotiations, which the Social Democrats conducted extremely poorly.
That there is light at the end of the tunnel is also shown by the fact that, since the problem with Greece was solved, the relations between the two countries have been excellent, in fact they have never been better, so in the future both Macedonians and Bulgarians can live in good relations, as they really should. and befitting its neighbors in Europe.
Economic issues in focus
On the domestic front, it is certain that the new government will primarily deal with economic issues because life in North Macedonia is really bad - wages are low, unemployment is high, the country has one of the highest inflation rates in Europe, young people are moving out.
There is also the fight against corruption and crime, because North Macedonia stands disastrously there when looking at the rankings of various world and European organizations. VMRO-DMNE has announced that it will have a different approach to local politics because at this moment that party now controls literally the entire government - both local, parliamentary and presidential.
The first female president
As for the president, North Macedonia also got its first woman in that position, Gordana Siljanovska Davkova, who by the number of votes, in the history of pluralism, became the candidate with the highest voter confidence, like no other before her. She is expected to be more involved in foreign policy than the previous president, Steve Pendarovski. In addition, a more dynamic approach to the role of the president in security issues and issues related to the country's legislation and legal system is expected.
Leaving the DUI from the authorities
When it comes to the most numerous minority in North Macedonia, the Albanian minority, it makes up about 20 percent of the population and this is extremely visible. In these elections, there was a close fight between the Albanian party DUI, on one side, and several united Albanian parties, on the other, called the "Vlen" (Znam) coalition. It is particularly interesting that Hristijan Mickoski has already announced that he will not allow DUI to enter the ruling coalition after the elections, regardless of whether that party wins in the Albanian ethnic bloc.
The DUI has been in power continuously since the war, which took place in 2001, that is, for more than two decades, and that brings with it numerous issues of corruption, crime, control of some institutions and everything that goes with that when someone for too long spent in power. Albanians provided the president of the parliament, the minister of foreign affairs, and in the last three months of the current government's mandate, even the technical prime minister. As things stand, it is almost certain that DUI will no longer be in power.
The "Vlen" coalition is ideologically not too different from VMRO-DPMNE. What is interesting among the Albanian parties in North Macedonia is the key difference in who supports them outside the country. The leader of DUI, Ali Ahmeti, was declared an honorary citizen of Tirana a few weeks ago, so it is clear that Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama is behind that party, while the future ruling Albanian coalition "Vlen" takes over the speech and rhetoric of Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti, who was even and at several of their election rallies. It is no secret that in this part of the Balkans there is a silent battle between Kurti and Rama over who will become the main "decision maker" in Albanian issues, and this then spills over into internal Macedonian issues and the election process. The new Albanian ruling party is expected to be more careful in terms of supporting the new government's anti-corruption and anti-crime measures and to show solidarity with Macedonians on issues related to future EU membership.
In the end, the future government of North Macedonia will be pro-EU and pro-NATO, but also conservative in terms of the policies that other European countries are already implementing, because their governments come from Christian Democratic ranks. This would also mean that the focus of North Macedonia's domestic and foreign policy will be directed more towards itself - to improve the general climate, and everything else will be on a secondary level. And that the EU is never left out as the main focus.
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