North Macedonians go to polls to vote in parliamentary and presidential elections that can present a test for the Balkan state’s European Union ambitions. Victory for the nationalist party would set the stage for tension with neighbouring Greece and Bulgaria, threatening to weigh on already slow EU accession talks. Opinion polls suggest that VMRO-DPMNE is set to win the parliamentary elections by a double-digit margin. North Macedonia has lost about 10 percent of its population to emigration over the past two decades. In 2001, NATO pulled North Macedonia back from the brink of civil war during an ethnic Albanian rebellion and promised faster integration into the EU and NATO.

Source: The North Africa Journal May 08, 2024 08:54 UTC