There is a parliamentary election in Macedonia on 1 June. The election was brought about when the Macedonia parliament voted to dissolve itself on 12 April. The decision was taken in reaction to Greece’s decision to veto Macedonia’s entry into NATO largely because of the dispute over country’s name. The decision to dissolve was supported by the governing parties. The last elections were held in 2006.

As I mentioned in a previous post, Macedonia is currently experiencing a period of cohabitation. The president is from the Social Democratic Union (SDSM), while the prime minister is from the VMRO-DPMNE, which is in a coalition with the DPA, NSDP, DOM, PDP and PEI. The president is a largely symbolic figure, though the president does enjoy some powers in the area of foreign and defence policy making.

Macedonia has a two-block party system. In this election, according to Balkan Insight, the VMRO-DPMNE-led block is a coalition of 18 parties, while the SDSM-led block comprises 8 parties. The incumbent VMRO-DPMNE-led expects to do well, which would make sense given it supported the snap election and the opposition SDSM opposed it (or at least they abstained in the dissolution vote).