North Macedonia nationalists return to power

A nationalist party in North Macedonia scored big wins in parliamentary and presidential elections on Wednesday and is returning to power after seven years.

The outcome is expected to further complicate North Macedonia’s longtime ambition of joining the European Union, as well as its relations with neighboring Bulgaria and Greece.

In parliamentary elections, the VMRO-DPMNE party gained 43.3 percent support, according to election commission results. The ruling SDSM socialists tumbled to just 15.4 percent of the vote and came third, losing the role of the main opposition to ethnic Albanian party DUI. VMRO will need to form a coalition to govern with a majority in the 120-seat parliament, however, as their vote total translated into only 58 MPs.

Meanwhile, VMRO-DPMNE candidate Gordana Siljanovska-Davkova was elected the country’s first female president — a largely ceremonial position — having won 65.1 percent support, the results showed.

Voters in the tiny Balkan country of 2 million have expressed frustration with corruption, the slow pace of reform, and the sluggish advance of North Macedonia’s bid to join the European Union.

In 2018 the country reached a historic agreement, changing its name and constitution and ending a decades-long dispute with Greece. The deal allowed Skopje to join NATO in 2020; for the past two years, however, Bulgaria has blocked North Macedonia’s EU bid, demanding its constitution be amended to acknowledge the country’s Bulgarian minority.

This article has been updated to reflect the results of the election.