Causes and Consequences of the Rise of Radical Right Populism in Macedonian Society

Abstract

The fall of the Yugoslav Federation opened up the road towards realization of the long-standing dream of the Macedonian people for creating its own independent country. Additionally, the fall of communism brought about the process of transition which was supposed to lead to establishing democracy and market economy in Macedonian society. However, the initial euphoria in Macedonian society about creating an independent country, based on the principles of democracy and market economy, was quickly replaced with a number of political and economic challenges. Thus, during the 90s of the XX-th century and the beginning of the XXI-th century, the Macedonian political elites were faced with the Yugoslav bloody conflict, problems with Macedonia’s international recognition, the Kosovo war, the Kosovo refugee crisis, internal conflict with Albanian rebels and separatists in 2001, as well as post-conflict building of Macedonian fragile society. Often, during these political uncertainties, in order to stabilize the Macedonian society, the Macedonian political elites were making unpopular decisions. In Macedonian society, such difficult and unpopular decisions were reality within the political as well as the economic sphere. Within the hunt for market society, during the 90s, the Macedonian political elites entered processes of privatization and reconstruction of Macedonian economy. Such processes led to a number of scandals, inflation, unemployment and poverty. All these political and economic uncertainties and troubles led to great disappointment among Macedonian citizens from the process of building Macedonian democracy. On the wings of such a disappointment, in 2006, VMRO-DPMNE and Nikola Gruevski came to power, which during the electoral campaign pledged revival of Macedonia in 100 steps. Although the slogan itself contained a dose of populism transformed through the promise for fast changes, i.e. the promise for revival in only 100 steps, still the first two years of VMRO-DPMNE’s rule were more related to technocratic tendencies and reforms rather than with the rise of populism. However, Greek veto on Macedonia’s accession in NATO in 2008 caused a complete change in the rule of VMRO-DPMNE. Starting from 2008 until 2017, the technocratic rule of Gruevski started to transform into classic populist rule. By representing themselves as a voice of the people, VMRO-DPMNE started to create THEM (traitors) V.S US (pure people) dichotomy in the Macedonian society. Over the years the content of the camp “them” (traitors) was constantly changing from one group to another. It started with ex-communist and transitional politicians, after that it switched to mainstream media and intellectuals and in the end it finished with NGO’s and foreign conspiracy forces. Such creation of dichotomy in Macedonian society was complemented by the fact that VMRO-DPMNE and Nikola Gruevski during their rule, tried to present themselves as protectors of the Macedonian national identity. That is why the project Skopje 2014 was launched under their auspices. Also, VMRO-DPMNE and Gruevski tried to abuse the favourite populist topic - refugee crisis. Such populist rule through the years produced great consequences in the Macedonian society. The populist rule by Nikola Gruevski and VMRO-DPMNE was followed by “occupation” of the state, clientelism, discriminatory legalism, corruption, nationalistic rhetoric and resulted with establishing an authoritarian illiberal system, huge division within Macedonian society and people, rise of the nationalism and interethnic conflict between ethnic Macedonians and ethnic Albanians, as well as, conflicts with Greece regarding who is true successor of ancient Macedonians and Alexander the Great. All this led to constant political crises in the Macedonian society. Such political crisis led to dramatic change of government in 2017 and VMRO-DPMNE after 11 years went in opposition. However, the rule of Nikola Gruevski and VMRO-DPMNE left great problematic legacy. Instead the promised revival in only 100 steps, Macedonian society after the rule of Nikola Gruevski and VMRO-DPMNE ended politically and economically devastated. Devastated and infected with populist virus because three years after the change of the government of Nikola Gruevski the populist energy in the Macedonian society is far from defeated. Quite the opposite. The radical right populist energy is still present in the Macedonian society and it’s waiting for its new revival.