The “Albanian Question” in North Macedonia: a Party-Political Struggle

This study examines the dynamics of the party system in North Macedonia, with a particular focus on the development of the Albanian representation in the Macedonian parliament. The chronological scope extends from the republic’s secession from Yugoslavia in 1991 to the formation of Hristijan Mickoski’s government in June 2024. The analysis considers the ethnic division of political forces in North Macedonia, identifying key trends in the interaction between Macedonian and Albanian parties and proposing a periodisation of the system’s evolution. The study is based on electoral results from municipal, parliamentary, and presidential elections, public statements by political figures, sociological survey data, Macedonian media reports, and official documents. The findings indicate four distinct phases in the development of North Macedonia’s party-political system. The first phase (1991–2008) was marked by relatively stable coalitions between Albanian and Macedonian parties. The second phase (2008–2016) saw the emergence of a pattern in which the dominant party within the Macedonian bloc formed a coalition with the leading party of the Albanian bloc. The third phase was characterised by an increase in the number of influential Albanian political actors, while still operating within a predominantly two-party framework. The fourth phase, beginning with Hristijan Mickoski’s tenure in June 2024, is distinguished by the exclusion of the leading Albanian party, the Democratic Union for Integration, from the ruling coalition.