Mazedoniens Perspektiven nach den Kommunal- und Präsidentschaftswahlen
Macedonia’s Prospects after the Local and Presidential Elections

Summary/Abstract: The candidate of Macedonia's ruling party VMRO-DPMNE, Gjorge Ivanov, won a landslide victory in the second round of the presidential election on 5 April 2009. With the victory of Ivanov, the centre-right party led by Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski has embellished its power on a grand scale. Previously a confrontational and nationalistic election campaign against Greece that is blocking Macedonia's bid to join EU and NATO by urging its neighbour to change its name has been conducted. The dispute is traced back to antiquity and is still the leading issue in Macedonia’s political daily routine – with increasing implications for the implementation of the Ohrid Agreement between ethnic Albanian and Macedonian citizens and the Euro-Atlantic perspective of the country. The article examines main domestic and external conflicts of Macedonia which urgently must be solved by the government and backed by the EU. The present debate on European Union enlargement fatigue is jeopardizing these efforts and could cause a decreasing commitment of the government to resolve Macedonia's problems seriously. In order to avoid new instability in Macedonia and the region the EU is obligated to overcome its enlargement fatigue debate and should seriously reaffirm the Western Balkan membership perspective.

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