The Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization – People's Party (Macedonian: Внатрешна македонска револуционерна организација – Народна Партија), shortened as VMRO – People's Party (Macedonian: ВMPO–Народна Партија) and VMRO–NP (Macedonian: ВMPO–НП), is a national-conservative[1]political party in North Macedonia, founded by the former Prime Minister Ljubčo Georgievski, who split from the VMRO–DPMNE. The VMRO–NP was founded in Skopje on 4 July 2004. Vesna Janevska was elected as the party's first chairwoman. It is among the smaller parties of the country.[6]
History
VMRO–NP was founded on 4 July 2004 by former VMRO–DPMNE leader Ljubčo Georgievski due to personal and ideological differences with his successor Nikola Gruevski. Vesna Janevska became the party's first president.[3] In the 2006 parliamentary election, VMRO–NP won 6.1% of the vote and 6 seats in the Assembly. In the 2011 parliamentary election, VMRO–NP received 28,500 votes (2.51%), losing all of its seats.[7] In April 2007, Gjorgji Trendafilov became the party's leader.[8] VMRO–NP remained an extra-parliamentary party until the 2020 parliamentary election, when it participated in the We Can alliance led by the Social Democratic Union of Macedonia and won one seat. Georgievski succeeded to the position of party president on 26 February 2012.[9]
According to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, its party program resembles VMRO–DPMNE's program.[10] The VMRO–NP's statute allowed dual membership in both parties. The party identifies itself as a right-wing conservative and patriotic party, with a Christian democratic orientation. It supports the Euro-Atlantic integration of North Macedonia.[3]
^ abcNordsieck, Wolfram (2008). "Macedonia". Parties and Elections in Europe. Archived from the original on 12 June 2010.
^Nacevska, Elena; Fink-Hafner, Danica (2019). "Change in the party system from liberal to ethnic-based polarisation – the case of Macedonia". Teorija in Praksa. 56 (1/2019): 7–29. Since 2002, the Macedonian political bloc has become more fragmented as small parties have emerged, such as the centre-right oriented VMRO-NP (VMRO People's Party) as a fraction of VMRO-DPMNE (founded by the former leader of VMRO-DPMNE) and the centre-left NSDP (New Social-Democratic Party) as an offshoot of SDSM.
^Robert Hudson; Ivan Dodovski, eds. (2023). Macedonia’s Long Transition: From Independence to the Prespa Agreement and Beyond. Springer Nature. p. 115. ISBN9783031207730.
