Macedonia's Center-Right Coalition Falls Short of Parliamentary Majority

Macedonia's center-right "Your Macedonia" coalition, led by Hristijan Mickoski's VMRO-DPMNE party, has won the parliamentary election but failed to secure an outright majority. The coalition will need to partner with another party to form a government.

Macedonia's center-right "Your Macedonia" coalition, led by VMRO-DPMNE party leader Hristijan Mickoski, emerged victorious in the parliamentary election on Wednesday, but fell short of an outright majority, leaving it reliant on a partnership with another party to form a government.

According to official results, the coalition won 58 of the country's 120 parliamentary seats, representing just over 43% of the votes cast. This is three seats short of the majority required for independent governance.

Mickoski, 46, expressed his intention to begin seeking a governing partner as early as Thursday. "Tonight we have a reason to celebrate, but starting from tomorrow, we have a job to do," he said late Wednesday. "I'll hold the first meeting in the morning where we will determine the principles for the composition of a government from which we will not deviate."

The parliamentary election was held simultaneously with a runoff for the country's presidential election, which resulted in the victory of North Macedonia's first female president, Gordana Siljanovska-Davkova, from the VMRO-DPMNE party.

The Social Democrat-led coalition, which has been in power for the past seven years, struggled to hold on to second place, obtaining only 15.3% of the votes and 18 seats in parliament, one less than a group of parties led by ethnic Albanian minority party DUI, which won 19 seats.

Another opposition ethnic Albanian coalition, led by the VLEN party, earned 13 seats, while the smaller Levitsa (Left) and the movement For our Macedonia (ZNAM) each won six seats.

The conservatives made sweeping gains on popular discontent over issues of corruption, the country's slow progress towards European Union membership, and its flat economic growth. Mickoski accused the outgoing government of ineptitude and of making humiliating compromises in trying to settle disputes with North Macedonia's neighbors.

In his victory speech, Mickoski told supporters that fighting corruption would be his government's priority. "Every last person who committed a crime and committed corruption will be held accountable," he declared. "The people have taught the government its most important lesson and saved their country. ... We have regained hope and tonight we have reason to celebrate."

Hopes are high that the country's new leadership will oversee North Macedonia's long-anticipated entry into the EU. The country has been orbiting the 27-nation bloc for nearly two decades with little to show for its efforts.

Although both opposing political sides support EU integration, they differ on how to deal with neighboring Bulgaria's demands that North Macedonia enshrine in its constitution the recognition of a Bulgarian ethnic minority. While Social Democrats and ethnic Albanian parties agree to the constitutional changes, VMRO-DPMNE says it will not accept what it calls "Bulgaria's diktat," hinting that it may seek to renegotiate the conditions on membership talks and seek guarantees from the EU that this will be Bulgaria's last demand for lifting its veto on North Macedonia joining the EU.

Outgoing President Stevo Pendarovski warned that the country's path toward the EU must not be deviated from. "If we miss that chance, we could lose another decade, maybe even another generation," he said, adding that this could lead to falling living standards, increased ethnic tensions, and could "expose us to a security risk that none of us can understand how big it could be."

Once the State Electoral Commission announces the final official results, the new president, Gordana Siljanovska Davkova, will be inaugurated by May 12, when the mandate for the current president officially ends. She will make a statement before the lawmakers of the old parliament, and the new parliament must be constituted within 20 days.

It is the president who must give the formal mandate to the winner of the parliamentary election to form a government. This step takes place within 10 days of the new parliament being constituted, but negotiations between party leaders usually begin informally days earlier, right after the election.