Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization–Democratic Party for Macedonian National Unity
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The Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization–Democratic Party for Macedonian National Unity (Macedonian:Внатрешно-Македонска Револуциона Организација–Демократска Партија за Македонско Национално Единство, or Vnatrešno-Makedonska Revoluciona Organizacija–Demokratska Partija za Makedonsko Nacionalno Edinstvo), or VMRO–DPMNE is a political party in the Republic of Macedonia. The party describes itself as a Christian Democratic party which supports the admission of Macedonia to NATO and the European Union.
The party's name derives from the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization, a liberation movement founded in 1893. The original VMRO (IMRO) was suppressed in the 1930s, at which time the territory of the current Republic of Macedonia was part of Yugoslavia. Although VMRO–DPMNE claims a line descent from the old VMRO, there is no real connection between the old VMRO and the new one.
After the death of Josip Broz Tito in 1980 Yugoslavia began to disintegrate and democratic politics in Macedonia revived. Many exiles returned to Macedonia from abroad, and a new generation of young Macedonian intellectuals rediscovered the history of Macedonian nationalism. In these circumstances it was not surprising that the name of it should be revived. A new VMRO–DPMNE was founded on June 17, 1990 in Skopje.
After the first multy-party elections in 1990, VMRO–DPMNE became the strongest party in the Parliament, but did not form a government, because it did not have a majority of seats and would have had to make a coalition with an ethnic Albanian party, which it refused to do. The party boycotted the second round of the 1994 elections claiming that fraud had happened in the first round. At the Kichevo Congress in 1995, deciding that it could not gain international support to form a government as long as it was nationalistic, VMRO–DPMNE became a moderate party with Christian Democratic orientation. After winning the 1998 election VMRO–DPMNE surprised many people when formed coalition government with the Democratic Party of Albanians. In 1999 the VMRO–DPMNE's candidate Boris Trajkovski was elected President, completing VMRO–DPMNE's takeover. Once in office Trajkovski pursued a much more moderate policy than expected.
In 2002 VMRO–DPMNE's government was defeated at the legislative elections. In an alliance with the Liberal Party of Macedonia, VMRO–DPMNE won 28 out of 120 seats. In 2004 Trajkovski was killed in a plane crash and Branko Crvenkovski was elected President, defeating the VMRO–DPMNE's candidate Sashko Kedev.
The first leader of the VMRO–DPMNE was Ljubco Georgievski, who served as prime minister from 1998 to 2002, and the current is Nikola Gruevski.
The party became the largest party in Parliament again after a net gain of over a dozen seats in the July 5, 2006 parliamentary elections. With 44 of 120 seats, the party is likely to form a government in coalition with an ethnic Albanian party again.
[edit] External links
- VMRO-DPMNE home page (in Macedonian)
- VMRO-DPMNE OK Ohrid home page (in Macedonian)
- VMRO-DPMNE home page (in English)
