Since then, however, the citizens of North Macedonia have become increasingly frustrated with the slowness of the accession process, and public support for the EU has dropped sharply.
Elections to elect a new government and president on May 8 look set to usher in a new administration under the VMRO-DPMNE party, which is taking a confrontational approach with both Sofia and Athens — both of whom would need to agree to Skopje’s admission into the pad.
Riding the Bulgarian side, VMRO-DPMNE is rejecting Sofia’s demand for constitutional changes recognizing a Bulgarian minority. Meanwhile, the Greeks are increasingly attuned to the fact that VMRO-DPMNE’s prime ministerial front-runner is referring to the country as “Macedonia” rather than “North Macedonia” — reigniting the old tensions with Greece about the use of the name of the homeland of Alexander the Great.
Opinion polls indicate VMRO-DPMNE, currently the main opposition party, is ahead and is expected to replace the SDSM socialist party, which has run the country since 2017, even though a coalition will be needed.
The first round of the presidential election on April 24 indicated a change of the political order. Gordana Siljanovska-Davkova, backed by VMRO, scored a dominant victory, garnering 40.1 percent of the vote, while incumbent Stevo Pendarovski of SDSM won 19.9 percent.
“These elections are for sure important for North Macedonia from an EU accession perspective, because in the polls VMRO is in the lead and we are yet to see whether, when and how it will be delivered on the constitutional changes for the continuation of the accession negotiations ,” said Simonida Kacarska from the European Policy Institute in Skopje.
