The presidential and parliamentary elections in North Macedonia resulted in a convincing double electoral victory for the right-wing opposition party VMRO-DPMNE, which is a big blow for the hitherto ruling SDSM.
Namely, in the elections in North Macedonia, the opposition right-wing party VMRO-DPMNE achieved a double victory, because its candidate Gordana Siljanovska Davkova became the country’s new and first president, and the party also won the most seats in the parliament.
North Macedonia is expected to turn to the right after the double electoral defeat of the hitherto ruling Social Democrats (SDSM).
After almost all the votes were counted, the former Social Democratic President Stevo Pendarovski won 29 percent of the votes and suffered a heavy defeat from Siljanovska Davkova, who was voted for by almost 65 percent of the voters.
“I wondered what I did to deserve such an honor. The award is priceless for me, it is a great responsibility,” said university professor Siljanovska Davkova, who will turn 71 in two days.
Siljanovska Davkova, who became the country’s first president, announced after her victory that she would stand up for all citizens, which, according to her, means for all ethnic groups, for all party members and for those who are not in any party.
As she pointed out, there is no president who can call for unity, especially not a woman, if he sticks to the party line, so the door of her office is open to everyone.
The cards were also shuffled in the parliament, where VMRO-DPMNE received about 43 percent of the votes, while about 15 percent of voters turned to the Social Democrats, who assessed the election result as a heavy blow to the party and called for its thorough revision.
The party received almost half as much support as in the previous parliamentary elections four years ago.
Supporters of the VMRO-DPMNE party enthusiastically welcomed the election results in front of the party’s headquarters in the center of Skopje, where they celebrated despite the rain.
“We succeeded. Macedonia won. This is a historic victory for the people,” said party leader Hristijan Mickoski to the gathered supporters.
The atmosphere was significantly different among supporters of the Social Democrats.
“The outcome is a disappointment and a big blow for SDSM,” said party leader Dimitar Kovačevski.
In the following days, talks will be held on the formation of a government coalition, during which VMRO-DPMNE will have to form alliances with smaller partners in order to gain a majority in parliament, AA writes.
Photo: Abdula Berisha/AA
