# Nikola Gruevski Comes to Power (5 July 2006)

URL: https://allhistories.com/northmacedonia/timeline/2006-nikola-gruevski-comes-to-power
Location: Skopje, Skopje Region
Themes: Rulers & Successions

After its defeat in 2002, VMRO-DPMNE was rebuilt by a new leader, Nikola Gruevski, a former finance minister and banker who promised economic reform, foreign investment and an end to corruption. The governing Social Democrats were weakened by slow growth, high unemployment and the controversy over the territorial reform. In the election of 5 July 2006 the VMRO-DPMNE-led coalition won 45 of the 120 seats. Gruevski, then 35, became prime minister in August at the head of a coalition that included the Democratic Party of Albanians rather than the larger Albanian party, DUI, which provoked protests and a temporary DUI boycott of parliament. After early elections in 2008, marred by violence and irregularities in some Albanian areas, Gruevski won a larger majority and formed a coalition with DUI. Gruevski won further elections in 2011 and 2014 and governed until January 2016. His governments introduced a flat tax and attracted foreign investors, but they also pursued the identity-focused policy known as 'antiquisation' and the Skopje 2014 project, and were accused of increasing control over the media, the judiciary and state institutions. His rule ended amid the wiretapping scandal of 2015.

## Why it matters
Gruevski's decade in power shaped Macedonian politics, identity policy and the economy, and ended in one of the country's deepest political crises.

Ruler at the Time: [Branko Crvenkovski](https://allhistories.com/northmacedonia/rulers/branko-crvenkovski)

Prime Minister of the Republic of Macedonia: Vlado Bučkovski (Social Democratic Union of Macedonia)

## Sources
- [Wikipedia — Nikola Gruevski](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikola_Gruevski)
- [Wikipedia — 2006 Macedonian parliamentary election](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2006_Macedonian_parliamentary_election)
- [Balkan Insight](https://balkaninsight.com/)
- [Wikipedia — Independent North Macedonia (period overview)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Macedonia)