N Macedonia set for rocky ties with EU neighbours as opposition wins vote
North Macedonia appeared to be on a collision course with its EU neighbours Greece and Bulgaria, as the nationalist opposition swept parliamentary and presidential elections on Wednesday.
The country's right-wing VMRO-DPMNE party earned an easy victory, with the ruling Social Democrats (SDSM) conceding defeat before any official results were announced.
Fireworks echoed through the capital Skopje as news of the landslide victory spread.
"I congratulate our political opponent VMRO-DPMNE with this victory in the elections," said Dimitar Kovacevski, the former prime minister and leader of the ruling SDSM.
The announcement even came before VMRO-DPMNE'S party chief and likely incoming prime minister, Hristijan Mickoski, had time to give his own victory speech.
"We succeeded. Macedonia won. It's a historic win for the people," Mickoski told supporters after the SDSM conceded.
The state election commission later reported that VMRO-DPMNE won at least 59 seats in the 120-seat parliament, with roughly 92 per cent of votes counted.
The SDSM won just 19 seats, with the rest divided among a slew of smaller parties.
The nationalist party's success will likely have a major effect on the Balkan country's dream of joining the European Union.
Mickoski has refused to acknowledge the country's new name and a historic agreement with Greece in 2018, which added "North" to its title to settle a long-running dispute and allowed the country to join NATO.
The opposition leader has also vowed to stand firm in a tussle with Bulgaria over linguistic and historical issues that has seen Sofia block North Macedonia's EU accession talks for the past two years.
Bulgaria has demanded Skopje change its constitution to acknowledge its Bulgarian minority.
In the presidential runoff, which also took place on Wednesday, VMRO-DPMNEBACKED candidate Gordana Siljanovska-davkova was set to become the country's first woman president, after beating longtime rival Stevo Pendarovski, the incumbent president.
"My biggest congratulations go to the citizens," she told media at the VMRO-DPMNE party's headquarters.
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Ahead of polls, VMRO-DPMNE candidates were brimming with confidence, after scoring a landslide win in the first-round presidential election last month.
"Victory is within reach and it is a consequence of all the suffering and humiliation this government brought," Mickoski told supporters.
Since taking over VMRO-DPMNE in 2017, Mickoski has revamped the tattered party after its former leader and ex-pm Nikola Gruevski fled corruption convictions and was given asylum in Viktor Orban's Hungary.
Mickoski has also pledged to
create tens of thousands of jobs, a message that has found a welcome audience with many in the country battered by abysmal economic performance and soaring inflation.
North Macedonia has lost some 10 per cent of its population
to mass emigration over the past two decades, with few opportunities for the young.
"VMRO-DPMNE has a great advantage and has the possibility of getting an even wider mobilisation of voters," said political analyst Xhelal Neziri.