The right-wing opposition party VMRO-DPMNE won a landslide victory in the parliamentary and presidential elections held yesterday Wednesday in North Macedonia.

Regarding the parliamentary elections, with 95% of the votes counted, VMRO-DPMNE has 43% and occupies 59 seats in the 120-seat Parliament.

The outgoing ruling Social Democratic Party (SDSM) was swept, taking just 15% and securing 19 seats.

Third place with 14% and 18 seats is occupied by the largest Albanian party in North Macedonia, Ali Ahmeti’s DUI.

In fourth place with a percentage of 11% and 13 seats comes the coalition of four opposition Albanian parties with the brand name “Axizia”.

Fifth, with 6.8% and six seats, is the nationalist, pro-Russian party “Left”. Sixth, with a percentage of 5.3% and five seats, is the newly formed party “Xero” of the mayor of Kumanovo, Maxim Dimitrievsky, who left SDSM two years ago.

In the previous parliamentary elections held in North Macedonia in July 2020, the SDSM (led by Zoran Zaev at the time) came first, occupying 46 seats, while the second VMRO-DPMNE secured 44 seats.

The leader of VMRO-DPMNE, Christian Mickoski, shortly before midnight, declared that in these elections “the proud people of “Macedonia” won and the corruption, nepotism and unworthiness fostered by the SDSM-DUI co-government were defeated.”

Mickoski announced that in the coming days he will start negotiations with the opposition Albanian coalition “Axije” on the formation of a government in the country, while ruling out the possibility of post-election cooperation with the DUI, which for the past 20 years has participated in all coalition governments in the country.

At the same time, in the second round of the presidential elections held yesterday alongside the parliamentary elections, the VMRO-DPMNE candidate Gordana Silianovska gathered a percentage of 65%, compared to only 29% obtained by the SDSM candidate and outgoing president of North Macedonia, Stevo Pentarovski.

With this result, the 70-year-old Silianovska is elected to the highest state office. She is the first woman to assume the presidency of the Republic in the country’s history.

The outgoing president of North Macedonia, Pendarovski, stated that the election results are clear and that his idea of ​​a multi-ethnic country, fully integrated into the Euro-Atlantic structures, unfortunately did not receive support from the electorate this time.

After midnight, a few thousand supporters of VMRO-DPMNE gathered in Skopje’s main square, where they celebrated the party’s victory in yesterday’s dual elections in the country.