SUMMARY
North Macedonia (formerly Macedonia, FYR) was a former constituent republic of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia; it declared independence on 8 September 1991. Following independence, Macedonia, FYR entered a process of democratic transition, which led to relatively free and fair elections. While many other parts of Yugoslavia experienced various forms of armed conflict, the Government of Macedonia, FYR successfully managed to keep tensions between the ethnic Macedonians and Albanians low until the eruption of armed conflict in Kosovo in 1999.
Between 1991 and 1998, the Social Democratic Alliance of Macedonia (Socijaldemokratski Sojuz na Makedonija, SDSM), and the Albanian Party for Democratic Prosperity (Partia për Prosperitet Demokratik, PDP) controlled the Government of Macedonia; both these parties stemmed from the Yugoslav Communists. In 1998, the ultranationalist Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization--Democratic Party for Macedonian National Unity (Vnatrešna Makedonska Revolucionerna Organizacija-Demokratska Partija za Makedonsko Nacionalno Edinstvo, VMRO-DPMNE), led by Ljupco Georgievski, and the nationalist Democratic Party for Albanians (Demokratska Partija na Albancite, DPA), led by Arben Xhaferi, won the election and formed a new government.
On 13 May 2001, VMRO-DPMNE and DPA agreed to form the Grand Coalition, a government of national unity, in response to the developing conflict with the UCK. This coalition included the government parties and six others, most prominently the two main opposition parties SDSM and PDP. While this coalition ensured broad representation of various interests, it was crippled by tensions between the various factions. The four major parties at the time, VMRO-DPMNE, DPA, SDSM, and PDP, were all signatories to the Ohrid Framework Agreement, signed between the government and UCK in 2001 to end the Macedonian conflict over government. The purpose of having all major political parties as signatories was to ensure the subsistence of the accord, regardless of which coalition of parties controlled the government in the future.
After the 2002 parliamentary election, a SDSM-led coalition assumed power. This coalition controlled the government until 2006, when it was preplaced by a series of VMRO-DPMNE-led coalitions that was still in power as of 2016. Macedonia, FYR has not fully completed its transition into a full-fledged democracy.
The Government of Macedonia received strong, albeit non-material, support from the United States and the European Union during the conflict; these actors wholly supported the restoration of government control over all Macedonian territory, and put pressure on the actors to settle the conflict. Furthermore, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) agreed to assist in the disarmament of the UCK, following the signing of the Ohrid Framework Agreement.
