Macedonia: All even, advantage Gruevski

A snap parliamentary election was held in Macedonia on 11 December 2016. According to preliminary results the strongest support was won by the coalition focused on the centre-right party VMRO-DPMNE, seeing it win 51 out of the 120 seats. The opposition coalition Social Democratic Union of Macedonia (SDSM) came in second (49 seats). The Albanian minority will traditionally be represented by the centre-right party Democratic Union for Integration and the conservative Democratic Party of Albanians. Two new Albanian parties which strongly insist on more rights being granted to the Albanian minority will also make their debuts in parliament: the BESA Movement and the Coalition for Albanians. The EU has positively evaluated the election process and emphasised the need to form a new government as soon as possible.

The scandal in 2015, where the phones of most senior state officials had been illegally tapped on a massive scale by the Macedonian secret services, showed that the state institutions had been subordinated to the government led by Nikola Gruevski, the leader of VMRO-DPMNE. This culminated in his resignation in January 2016 and to the snap election (as a consequence of engagement by the EU and the USA).

ESO: Background information: A perfect storm: Macedonia’s political chaos and the refugee crisis http://www.europeansources.info/record/a-perfect-storm-macedonias-political-chaos-and-the-refugee-crisis/

ESO: Background information: Macedonia opposition chief accused of staging coup d’etat http://www.europeansources.info/record/macedonia-opposition-chief-accused-of-staging-coup-detat/

ESO: Background information: Macedonian parliamentary election, 2016 http://www.europeansources.info/record/macedonian-parliamentary-election-2016/

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