North Macedonia elects first female president

North Macedonia chose its first female president on Wednesday. The Social Democrats had big losses in both the presidential and parliamentary elections.

Gordana Siljanovska-Davkova, a 70-year-old law professor supported by the conservative party, won the presidential runoff with almost 65% of the votes counted. “Is there a more significant change than choosing a woman as president. ” Siljanovska-Davkova asked her party’s followers. “I will support women in taking this important step towards change and improvement. ”

Current president, Stevo Pendarovski, admitted defeat after receiving only 29% of the votes. Siljanovska-Davkova got support from the conservative VMRO-DPMNE party. This party gained a lot of support because people were not happy with how slowly the country was joining the European Union and the slow economy. VMRO-DPMNE and their group were winning the parliamentary election with almost 43%. The Social Democrats, who have been in charge for seven years, were having a hard time staying in second place with 14. 8%, just a bit more than the ethnic Albanian party DUI.

The parties in the main city Skopje were not as fun because there was a big storm that knocked out the power. The conservatives won by a lot, and now they need to have talks about how to share power in the 120-seat parliament. However, Social Democrat leader Dimitar Kovachevski, who was the prime minister from 2022 until earlier this year, admitted that his party lost in the parliamentary election and said that he will step down after the party chooses a new leader. Siljanovska-Davkova is the first woman to become president since the country became independent from Yugoslavia in the 1990s. Her new role is mostly symbolic.

The month-long campaign was about North Macedonia trying to join the 27-nation EU, dealing with corruption and poverty, and improving its slow economic growth.

Hristijan Mickoski, the leader of VMRO-DPMNE, led a group of 22 parties called “Your Macedonia. ” They said that their opponents were not capable and were making embarrassing deals in order to fix problems with North Macedonia’s neighbors.

North Macedonia is a member of NATO and has been trying to join the EU since 2005. However, there have been problems with Greece and Bulgaria, and they also need to make some changes before they can join.

Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, and Serbia also want to join.

Gordana Gerasimovski, who lives in Skopje, said she was sad that the country had been waiting a long time to join the EU, but she hopes things will get better now.

She said we should have joined the European Union a long time ago. “We don’t have this now, but we hope to get there eventually. ”

More than 2,300 people from inside and outside the country were allowed to watch the election.