North Macedonia
North Macedonia (previously the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia) is an upper-middle income and landlocked European country, performing in the mid-range across all four categories of democracy in the Global State of Democracy framework. Its performance in the Rule of Law category is well below its performance in other areas. Over the past five years, it has made significant gains in Elected Government, Basic Welfare and Personal Integrity and Security. At the same time, however, it has experienced notable drops in Access to Justice. North Macedonia has been an official candidate for European Union (EU) membership since 2005, with accession negotiations having started in 2020. Key economic sectors include textiles, agriculture, and manufacturing.
Since North Macedonia declared independence from Yugoslavia in 1991, electoral politics have largely unfolded as a contest between the center-left Social Democratic Union of Macedonia (SDSM) and the nationalist, center-right VMRO-DPMNE. The former is the direct descendant of the Yugoslav-era League of Communists of Macedonia, while the latter (founded in 1990) explicitly links itself to the nationalist revolutionary organization from the country’s Ottoman-era. A wiretapping scandal in 2015 implicated the government in unlawful activities and led to VMRO-DPMNE losing power in 2017 for the first time in more than a decade. Economic performance and corruption drive citizens’ top day-to-day political concerns, but at the macro level, politics in North Macedonia has been structured by the intersection of questions over national identity and the process of Euro-Atlantic integration. Through the early 2000s, North Macedonia was, of all the Yugoslav successor states, a leading contender to achieve EU and NATO accession. But a long-running dispute with Greece over the country’s name (Greece argued that ‘Macedonia’ without qualifiers implied irridentist claims to the Greek province of the same name) blocked progress and fostered political stagnation. A historic deal, signed in 2018, put the name dispute to bed, only for Bulgaria to raise its own set of ethnically-based objections to North Macedonia’s progress towards EU membership.
These developments reflect the country’s struggle to achieve a comfortable consensus on national identity. North Macedonia is diverse, home to ethnic Macedonians—who make up the majority—and several minority communities, including Albanians (the largest minority group), Turks, Roma, Serbians, Bosniaks and Vlachs. Previous governments have attempted to assert an overtly nationalist Macedonian identity, despite apparent inconsistencies in desired historical narratives. More recent moves to strengthen inter-group relations have included the recognition of Albanian as an official language. This was an important step, especially in light of unresolved inter-ethnic tensions and a history of some violence. Progress has also occurred on women’s rights and LGBTQIA+ rights issues, although challenges remain, particularly with regards to the underrepresentation of women in positions of power and a rise in anti-LGBTQIA+ hate speech.
In the years ahead, the Rule of Law factors should be closely watched, alongside the Access to Justice indicator. The continued presence of corruption in particular hampers economic performance and the overall business environment. Major ethnic divides, including ongoing ill-treatment of the Roma people, negatively impact both domestic politics and foreign relations with neighboring states. A firm commitment to resolving these issues will be necessary in order for North Macedonia to ascend to EU membership.
Monthly Event Reports
February 2024 | Parliament passes amendments allowing state funded ads in private media
On 28 February, the Parliament of North Macedonia passed amendments that will allow the government to run advertisements in private media using public resources. The amendments were submitted to parliament in November 2023 in an expedited process, typically utilized for crucial, EU-sought reforms. State advertisements in private media were outlawed in 2018. North Macedonia’s Journalists’ Association and the Independent Union of Journalists and Media Workers have criticized the amendments, voicing concerns about risks to political influence on the media, increased dependency of the media on politics, and disruption of the media market. In 2019, the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network had disclosed that the government led by Nikola Gruevski, who is currently a fugitive following a jail sentence for corruption, had funnelled approximately EUR 26 million over seven years into predominantly private media in order obtain favourable coverage.
January 2024 | Parliament agrees on caretaker government; elects first-ever ethnic Albanian PM
Parliament elected Talat Xhaferi from the Democratic Union for Integration (BDI), the largest ethnic Albanian party, to be the caretaker prime minister. Despite the opposition VMRO-DPMNE party securing two ministerial and three deputy positions in the new cabinet, its MPs abstained from voting for Xhaferi. The vote follows the resignation of Prime Minister Dimitar Kovačevski, in line with a system introduced in 2015 to prevent ruling party interference in the 100 days before elections through the formation of caretaker (technical) governments. Xhaferi's election follows a 2020 coalition agreement between the ruling Social Democrats and BDI, where the appointment of an ethnic Albanian as caretaker PM was a condition. Xhaferi's election as the first ethnic Albanian in this role has been considered historic. Previously, Xhaferi was North Macedonia's first ethnic Albanian defense minister and speaker of parliament.
November 2023 | Court rules against IRL investigative media group
Rights groups and journalists have criticized the Civil Court in Skopje for ruling in favor of businessman and former deputy Prime Minister Koco Angjushev in a defamation case against Investigative Reporting Lab (IRL). They argue that the decision resembles a strategic lawsuit against public participation (SLAPP). The court found IRL guilty of harming Angjushev's reputation by airing a documentary linking him to pollution caused by chemical-filled fuel oil. The judge recommended shutting down IRL and imposed a symbolic compensation fee, along with an order to publish the verdict on an entire newspaper page. IRL's editor-in-chief, Saska Cvetkovsk, stated they would pursue justice at the European Court for Human Rights if local courts do not provide it. In December, Angjushev was blacklisted by the US State Department for involvement in “significant corruption.”
September 2023 | Amendments to Criminal Code weaken punishments for public sector corruption
The parliament amended the Criminal Code late on 6 September in a rushed vote to weaken anti-corruption measures in the public sector. The minimum five-year prison sentence for abuse of office was scrapped and the maximum sentence reduced from ten to three years. The European Commission criticized the hurried process and in protest civil society called for President Stevo Pendarovski to veto the legislation. Much speculation surrounds the amendments, with some accusing the government of trying to secure virtual amnesty ahead of upcoming elections and others alleging that the changes were part of a bargain to secure the support of former Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski for planned constitutional changes. Gruevski is living in exile in Hungary after multiple convictions of abuse of office.
Explore past monthly event reports
GSoD Indices Data 2013-2022
Basic Information
Human Rights Treaties
Global State of Democracy Indices
Hover over the trend lines to see the exact data points across the years
Factors of Democratic Performance Over Time
Use the slider below to see how democratic performance has changed over time