• Military Menu                       

• Introduction
• Systems
• Facilities
• Agencies
• Industry
• Operations
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• WMD
• Intelligence
• Homeland Security
• Space

Macedonia - Politics 2021

Since Nikola Gruevski and the nationalist VMRO-DPMNE party came to power in 2006, Macedonia's position has deteriorated on all relevant international lists that monitor the state of a country's democracy, respect for human rights and press freedom. According to Freedom House, it was the only European country where the press was "not free" - along with Turkey and Russia.

Macedonia has been without a functioning government since 2015 when the country sank into political turmoil over a wiretapping scandal that brought down the ruling nationalist VMRO-DPMNE party bloc. Following former Prime Minister Gruevski's resignation in January 2016, the country was run by an interim government in a deal brokered by the European Union until the elections in December. Elections were held in December 2016, but no government was formed. Former Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski and his clique from the nationalist VMRO-DPMNE party won a narrow victory, but failed to build a governing coalition.

The Social Democratic Union under the leadership of Zoran Zaev was more successful, forming a coalition with three Albanian parties. Albanians are the second-biggest ethnic group in the country, at around 25 percent. The Albanian parties had refused to work with Gruevski because of his nationalist statements and attempts to stamp out democracy in Macedonia. After losing the majority in parliament, Gruevski and his party opted to block parliament and prevent the election of a speaker, as well as the formation of a new government.

Protesters stormed into Macedonia's parliament and assaulted the leader of the Social Democrats after his party and ethnic Albanian allies voted to elect an Albanian as parliament speaker. Talat Xhaferi became the first ethnic Albanian parliament speaker in Macedonia since the small Balkan country won independence from then-Yugoslavia in 1991. Ethnic Albanians comprise a third of the country's population.

Violence erupted after protesters supporting the rival Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization – Democratic Party for Macedonian National Unity (VMRO-DPMNE), entered parliament waving Macedonian flags and singing the national anthem. Hundreds of people under the direct command of VMRO-DPMNE stormed parliament, wearing black masks to cover their faces. Some of them carried guns, knives and baseball bats. The police, in league with Gruevski, didn't just let them in, they even greeted them.

Only after two hours had passed were special units able to enter parliament. MPs from the new parliamentary majority were the main targets of the attack. Macedonia's opposition leader was among nearly 10 people injured in parliament after protesters stormed the building when an ethnic Albanian was elected as the speaker of parliament. Macedonian police fired stun grenades to disperse protesters outside the parliament and clear the way for the evacuation of lawmakers still in the building.

For Nikola Gruevski and his clique from the nationalist VMRO-DPMNE party, losing power meant they will likely be looking at jail sentences of several years. The Special Prosecutor's office, founded several years ago after pressure from both the EU and the US, accuses him of spying on tens of thousands of citizens via intelligence services while he was prime minister. He's also accused of election fraud and ties to other corrupt practices.

Gruevski and his party for months had been deliberately trying to provoke an ethnic conflict between Macedonians and Albanians, labeling anyone who cooperates with them as "traitors." Controlled destabilization of the country could provide Gruevski with the trump card he needs to be recognized again as a negotiating partner with the international community. And that, in turn, would open the door for an amnesty for his decade-long criminal regime.

The current crisis was the worst since 2001 when Western diplomacy helped drag the country of 2.1 million people back from the brink of civil war during an ethnic Albanian insurgency, promising it a route to membership of the EU and NATO. But Macedonia has made little progress in that direction due to a name dispute with Greece.

Macedonia's parliament endorsed a new government led by Social Democrat leader Zoran Zaev on 31 May 2017, in a first step towards ending the country's two-year political crisis. Zaev, whose SDSM party has formed a coalition with parties representing the country's ethnic Albanians, won the support of 62 out of 120 MPs, in a vote that came nearly six months after parliamentary elections. Forty-four voted against and five abstained.

Macedonia's new prime minister, Zoran Zaev, was sworn in on 01 June 2017 after the parliament approved his coalition government, ending six months of political deadlock. Zaev leads a three-party coalition of Social Democrats and two ethnic Albanian parties. Zaev faced a potentially monumental task -- restoring confidence in a state that at times over the past three years wavered between paralysis and authoritarianism. Legislative allies of former Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski were expected to demand new elections before any of the ongoing investigations into possible corruption during Gruevski's decade-long administration reached the courts.