On the North Macedonian general election of 2020
Yesterday's general election in North Macedonia was the first to be held since the country officially renamed itself from FYROM (Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia) to North Macedonia, having been repeatedly told by Greece not to merely call themselves simply "Macedonia". Like all elections in this current period, the coronavirus pandemic significantly depressed turnout, which dropped from 66.8% to just 51.3%, the lowest turnout level since North Macedonia gained independence from the now defunct Yugoslavia. Also, because of said coronavirus pandemic, this election was held four months ahead of schedule; it was originally due for November 2020.
Neither the social democratic/minority interests coalition "We Can" (comprising of the Social Democratic Union of Macedonia, the Besa Movement, the VMRO-People's Party, and the Turkish Democratic Party) of former North Macedonian Prime Minister Zoran Zaev (who still led the coalition in this election even though Oliver Spasovski succeeded him in January) nor the national conservative "Renewal" coalition (VMRO-DPMNE) of Hristijan Micoski performed that well. We Can lost 8 seats, bringing it down to 46, and Renewal lost 7 seats, bringing it down to 44, although it still means that between them these coalitions hold 3/4 of the seats in the North Macedonia Assembly (which has 120 seats). The pro-European liberal-conservative Democratic Union for Integration increased its seat total by 5 to 15 and the Alliance for Albanians-Alternative quadrupled its seat total from 3 to 12, and this occurred despite the good relations of Mr Zaev with Albania and Albanians in North Macedonia. Many of them were not particularly satisfied with Mr Spasovski, however. As a result, the more conservative Democratic Party of Albanians was left with only one seat in the new Assembly. (NB: Unlike some of its neighbours, North Macedonia does not have any reserved seats in its parliament.)
Levica (The Left) defied expectations when it managed to pass the 4% threshold and win 2 seats in the 2020 Assembly, much of it coming from lapsed SDSM voters opposed to North Macedonia's joining of NATO in February, which came after Greece finally stopped vetoing their application (they had previously done so when North Macedonia used the name Macedonia; some of ancient Macedonia as ruled by Alexander the Great from 336 BC to 323 BC is now in Greece). It was also the only significant political party in North Macedonia to mention the climate crisis during the campaign, correctly warning that Macedonia was undergoing an "ecological cataclysm".
Of the other parties running in this North Macedonian election, only Integra-Macedonian Conservative Party polled more than 1%, not even close to winning any seats. The Roma People's Party received the wooden spoon for this election with 0.14% of the vote. Increasingly in elections in Eastern and Southeastern Europe, coalitions are (almost) essential to obtaining any real chance of power, and smaller parties are either forced to join coalitions with only limited chances for list seats or end up being effectively shut out of their country's assembly constantly, even when the representation threshold is comparatively low.
Neither the social democratic/minority interests coalition "We Can" (comprising of the Social Democratic Union of Macedonia, the Besa Movement, the VMRO-People's Party, and the Turkish Democratic Party) of former North Macedonian Prime Minister Zoran Zaev (who still led the coalition in this election even though Oliver Spasovski succeeded him in January) nor the national conservative "Renewal" coalition (VMRO-DPMNE) of Hristijan Micoski performed that well. We Can lost 8 seats, bringing it down to 46, and Renewal lost 7 seats, bringing it down to 44, although it still means that between them these coalitions hold 3/4 of the seats in the North Macedonia Assembly (which has 120 seats). The pro-European liberal-conservative Democratic Union for Integration increased its seat total by 5 to 15 and the Alliance for Albanians-Alternative quadrupled its seat total from 3 to 12, and this occurred despite the good relations of Mr Zaev with Albania and Albanians in North Macedonia. Many of them were not particularly satisfied with Mr Spasovski, however. As a result, the more conservative Democratic Party of Albanians was left with only one seat in the new Assembly. (NB: Unlike some of its neighbours, North Macedonia does not have any reserved seats in its parliament.)
Levica (The Left) defied expectations when it managed to pass the 4% threshold and win 2 seats in the 2020 Assembly, much of it coming from lapsed SDSM voters opposed to North Macedonia's joining of NATO in February, which came after Greece finally stopped vetoing their application (they had previously done so when North Macedonia used the name Macedonia; some of ancient Macedonia as ruled by Alexander the Great from 336 BC to 323 BC is now in Greece). It was also the only significant political party in North Macedonia to mention the climate crisis during the campaign, correctly warning that Macedonia was undergoing an "ecological cataclysm".
Of the other parties running in this North Macedonian election, only Integra-Macedonian Conservative Party polled more than 1%, not even close to winning any seats. The Roma People's Party received the wooden spoon for this election with 0.14% of the vote. Increasingly in elections in Eastern and Southeastern Europe, coalitions are (almost) essential to obtaining any real chance of power, and smaller parties are either forced to join coalitions with only limited chances for list seats or end up being effectively shut out of their country's assembly constantly, even when the representation threshold is comparatively low.
Comments
Post a Comment