Politics of North Macedonia

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]

Political system

North Macedonia's six electoral constituencies

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]

Presidents

Kiro Gligorov (1991–1999)
Boris Trajkovski (1999–2004)
Branko Crvenkovski (2004–2009)
Gjorge Ivanov (2009–2019)
Stevo Pendarovski (2019–present)

Executive branch

Main office-holders
Office	Name	Party	Since
President	Stevo Pendarovski	SDSM	12 May 2019
Prime Minister	Dimitar Kovačevski	SDSM	17 January 2022

Although in Macedonian, these roles have very similar titles (Претседател на Република Северна Македонија "President of the Republic of North Macedonia" and Претседател на Владата на Република Северна Македонија "President of the Government of the Republic of North Macedonia") it is much less confusing to refer to them in English as president and prime minister respectively. These are also the terms used in the English translation of the constitution.

President

Coat of arms of the president of North Macedonia

cannot hold any other public office or position in a political party
is elected for a 5-year term and can serve a maximum of two terms
is Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces and President of the Security Council
nominates a candidate from the majority party or parties in the Assembly who then proposes the Government who are elected by the Assembly
makes diplomatic appointments and some judicial and Security Council appointments
grants decorations, honours and pardons[4]

Government

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:

cannot be Representatives in the Assembly
cannot hold any other public office or follow a profession while in office
are elected by a majority vote in the Assembly
are granted legal immunity
cannot be called for service in the Armed Forces
propose laws, budget and regulations to be adopted by the Assembly
control diplomatic policy
make other state appointments[4]

Current cabinet

The current cabinet is a coalition of SDSM, the Democratic Union for Integration, the New Social Democratic Party, Liberal Democratic Party, Party for the Full Emancipation of the Roma of Macedonia, Democratic Party of Turks and the Party for the Movement of Turks in Macedonia. The members of the Cabinet of North Macedonia are chosen by the Prime Minister and approved by the national Parliament, however certain cabinet level positions are chosen by both President and Prime Minister, and approved by the Parliament.

New government as of 28 February 2023

Member	Portfolio	Macedonio
Dimitar Kovačevski	Prime Minister
Artan Grubi	Deputy Prime Minister in charge of Framework Agreement Implementation, Political system and inter-community relations
Fatmir Bytyqi	Deputy Prime Minister in charge of Economic Affairs, Minister without Portfolio
Bojan Maricik	Deputy Prime Minister in charge of European Integration, Minister without Portfolio
Slavica Grkovska	Deputy Prime Minister in charge of Good Governance Policies, Minister without Portfolio
Bujar Osmani	Minister of Foreign Affairs
Slavjanka Petrovska	Minister of Defense
Oliver Spasovski	Minister of Internal Affairs
Fatmir Besimi	Minister of Finance
Krenar Loga	Minister of Justice
Ljubčo Nikolovski	Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Supply
Blagoja Bočvarski	Minister of Transport and Communication
Kreshnik Bekteshi	Minister of Economy
Fatmir Magiti	Minister of Health
Jeton Shaqiri	Minister of Education and Science
Admirim Aliti	Minister of Information Society and Administration
Goran Milevski	Minister of Local Self-Government
Bisera Kostadinovska Stojchevska	Minister of Culture
Jovana Trenchevska	Minister of Labor and Social Policy
Naser Nuredini	Minister of Environment and Physical Planning
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

Legislative branch

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 last election to be held was on 11 December 2016, with a second round held in one polling station on 25 December 2016. The next election is to be held in 2020. The result of this election was as follows: percent of vote by party/coalition - VMRO-DPMNE 38.1%, SDSM coalition 36.7%, BDI 7.3%, Besa Movement 4.9%, AfA 3.1%, PDSh 2.7%, other 7.2%; seats by party - VMRO-DPMNE 51, SDSM coalition 49, BDI 10, Besa Movement 5, AfA 3, PDSh 2; note - the 3 seats for diaspora went unfilled because none of the candidates won the 6,500 minimum vote threshold. Seats by party/coalition as of May 2019 - ruling coalition 68 (SDSM coalition 49, BDI 10, Besa Movement 3, PDSh 2, other 5), opposition coalition 52 (VMRO-DPMNE coalition 48, Besa Movement 2, AfA 2); composition - men 75, women 45, percent of women 37.5%

2020 election result

The election resulted in an extremely divided parliament, with the pro-EU SDSM-led coalition winning a plurality of votes and seats. The nationalist conservative VMRO-DPMNE-led coalition came as a close second, lagging behind by only two seats and less than 1.5% of the vote. The BDI and the Alliance for Albanians–Alternativa coalition, both representing the ethnic Albanian minority, saw large gains. The Left, a socialist party, entered parliament for the first time with two seats, and the Democratic Party of Albanians lost one seat. Turnout was down roughly 15 percentage points mainly due to the COVID-19 pandemic.



Party		Votes	%	Seats	+/–
	We Can (SDSM and others)[lower-alpha 1]	327,408	35.89	46	–8
	Renewal (VMRO-DPMNE and others)[lower-alpha 2]	315,344	34.57	44	–7
	Democratic Union for Integration	104,699	11.48	15	+5
	Alliance for Albanians–Alternativa	81,620	8.95	12	+9
	The Left	37,426	4.10	2	+2
	Democratic Party of Albanians	13,930	1.53	1	–1
	Integra – Macedonian Conservative Party	12,291	1.35	0	New
	Civic Democratic Union	3,555	0.39	0	New
	MORO – Workers Party	3,245	0.36	0	0
	Voice for Macedonia	2,802	0.31	0	New
	Never North, Only Macedonia	2,604	0.29	0	0
	Social Democratic Union Skopje	2,585	0.28	0	0
	Your Party	1,894	0.21	0	New
	Democrats	1,558	0.17	0	New
	Roma People's Party	1,225	0.13	0	New
Total		912,186	100.00	120	0

Valid votes		912,186	96.66
Invalid/blank votes		31,564	3.34
Total votes		943,750	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		1,814,263	52.02
Source: State Election Commission

Judicial branch

Judiciary power is exercised by courts, with the court system being headed by the Judicial Supreme Court, Constitutional Court[5] 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

Administrative divisions

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.

Ethnic diversity

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.

Foreign relations

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 (observer), ISO, ITU, NATO, OPCW, OSCE, PCA, PFP, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UPU, WCL, WCO, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTrO (observer)

Most notable relations with other countries include: Greece, China the US and Kosovo amongst others.

Greece

North Macedonia and Greece have excellent economic, trade and business relations, with Greece being the largest investor in the country. 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, 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. 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.

United States

The United States and North Macedonia enjoy excellent bilateral relations.[6] 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.

China

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.[7]

Notes

Also includes the BESA, the VMRO–NP, the DPT, the New Social Democratic Party (NSDP), the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), the Party for a European Future (PEI), the United Party for Roma Equality (OPER), the Party for the Movement of Turks in Macedonia (PDT), the Democratic Union of the Vlachs of Macedonia (DSVM), New Alternative (NA), the Party for Economic Changes 21 (PEP 21), the Party for Social and Economic Progress (POEN), the Democratic Union (DS), the Political Party “Dignity” (PPD), the Serbian Party in Macedonia (SSM), the Democratic League of Bosniaks, the Party of Pensioners (PP), the Party for Democratic Prosperity of the Roma (PDPR), Democratic Renewal of Macedonia (DOM), United for Macedonia (OM), the Party for the Full Emancipation of the Roma of Macedonia (CERRNM), and the Union of Roma in Macedonia
Includes Citizen Option for Macedonia (GROM), the Movement for Turkish National Union, the Democratic Party of Serbs in Macedonia, the Democratic Party of the Roma, the Democratic Forces of the Roma, Macedonian Action (MAAK), the New Liberal Party, the Party of the Vlachs of Macedonia (PVM), the Party of United Democrats of Macedonia, the United Party of the Roma in Macedonia, the Workers’ Agricultural Party of Macedonia, the Socialist Party of Macedonia, the Serbian Progressive Party, the Party of Democratic Action of Macedonia, the Union of Tito’s Left Forces, Roma Integration Party, and Democratic Bosniak Party, as well as the independent candidates Adnan Arsovski and Adnan Kahil

References

"Democracy Index 2022: Frontline democracy and the battle for Ukraine" (PDF). Economist Intelligence Unit. 2023. Retrieved 9 February 2023.
"Republic of Macedonia Constitution".
Macedonian Political System Archived 23 July 2008 at the Wayback Machine
Constitution of the Republic of Macedonia Archived 28 September 2011 at the Wayback Machine
See Shasivari, Jeton. Restricted Judicial Activism of the Constitutional Court of Republic of Macedonia Regarding Protection of Human Rights and Freedoms. Acta Universitatis Danubius. Juridica; Galati Vol. 15, Fasc. 1, (2019).
Makfax Agency United States of America congratulate President Ivanov on his inauguration and are looking forward to continuing of the excellent relations with Macedonia
"Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China". Archived from the original on 26 July 2012. Retrieved 19 February 2015.

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