Macedonian politician (born 1966)
Ljub?o Georgievski
or
Lyubcho Georgievski
(
Macedonian
:
?убчо Георгиевски
,
pronounced
[?upt???
???r?i?fski]
;
[2]
Bulgarian
:
Любчо Георгиевски
; born 17 January 1966) is a Macedonian politician who served as the only
Vice President of Macedonia
from January to October 1991 and as the
Prime Minister of Macedonia
from 1998 to 2002. He is considered one of the pioneers of the country's independence.
[3]
Georgievski founded the
Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization - Democratic Party for Macedonian National Unity
(VMRO-DPMNE) and was the first party president from 1990 to 2004. However, following accusations of being
pro-Bulgarian
, he broke off with the party he founded and established the
VMRO-NP
, and later acquired
Bulgarian citizenship
.
Life
[
edit
]
In his twenties he began to spread his pro-Macedonian independence, anti-Yugoslav and
anti-communist
politics among
Macedonians
. He first entered in the
Movement for All-Macedonian Action
and participated on the founding meeting of the party where he stated that MAAK has to be a movement for a
confederation
.
[3]
In the circles of the party he met with Boris Zmejkovski and
Dragan Bogdanovski
. After he left the party he intended to create a new political movement.
Dragan Bogdanovski who was a proclaimed Macedonian rights movement activist had made a blueprint for a
Democratic Party for Macedonian National Unity
.
[4]
He had also made a
statute
, book of rules, and an instruction of how the party is going to work. Georgievski together with Bogdanovski, Zmejkovski and few others activists had agreed to make a party for independent
Macedonia
. The
Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization ? Democratic Party for Macedonian National Unity
was founded on 17 June 1990 and was the only political party in
SR Macedonia
that spoke for independence. On the
first multi-party elections in 1990
Georgievski with his party had won the biggest number of seats in the
Macedonian Assembly
. Refusing to make a coalition with the ethnic Albanian parties Georgievski had failed to make government and a
non-partisan
government came to power. After a new constitution was adopted in November 1990 he was elected a Vice President by the Assembly of the Republic of Macedonia.
Georgievski was active during the time when he was in
opposition
. In 1998 Georgievski won the
parliamentary elections
and became
Prime Minister of Macedonia
with a coalition government with the
Democratic Alternative
party and the
Democratic Party of Albanians
. He led the republic during the
Macedonian insurgency
in 2001 and later signed the
Ohrid Agreement
. During this period, he was accused by the opposition of implementing pro-Bulgarian policies.
[5]
Georgievski resigned from his party in 2003 after he lost the
2002 elections
. In recent years he is the president of the
Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization - People's Party
.
Georgievski is the founder of the right wing party
VMRO-DPMNE
. When the
wars of Yugoslav succession
started and the region was heading in for independence, Georgievski emerged as one of the strongest voices of opposition to challenge the Communist ruling structure, and succeeded in gaining strong public support. During his time in government (1998?2002), his coalition introduced strong reforms within the State administration, introduced the
VAT
system, started denationalisation, and adopted the pension system law. The Government managed to achieve very good financial results; foreign currency reserves were almost doubled, and a large budget surplus was also gained. In 2001, in
Luxembourg
, Georgievski signed the EU backed
Stabilization and Association Agreement
.
His political agenda was nevertheless questioned during the short conflict ignited by the ethnic
Albanian
guerrillas and
Macedonian armed forces
in 2001. The conflict ended with the signing of the
Ohrid Framework Agreement
, which pledged greater rights for the Albanian minority. Georgievski was accused of direct involvement in the conflict, to the point of having ignited it, for personal benefits. Shortly after he lost the elections in 2002 to the opposition party
SDSM
, accusations of corruption followed, thus considerably lowering his political profile.
He eventually broke off with the party he once founded, due to ideological incompatibility with his once Finance Minister
Nikola Gruevski
and founded
VMRO-NP
. Despite the members of the party not considering themselves
Bulgarians
, they strongly declare their
Bulgarophilia
and criticize the official statements about the Macedonian history issued by the politicians and historians in the country.
In
North Macedonia
, Georgievski has a reputation for being a Bulgarophile intellectual. In 2006 Georgievski applied for and was granted
Bulgarian citizenship
,
[6]
[7]
declaring
Bulgarian
descent.
[8]
[9]
Literary work
[
edit
]
In 1988 Georgievski graduated from the
Ss. Cyril and Methodius University of Skopje
, specializing in comparative literature. He is the author of two poetry books (
Apocalypse
and
City
) and one collection of short stories (
Direct Interventions with Short Stories into the Anatomic Structure of History
).
In late summer of 2007 Georgievski published his book "С лице към истината" ("Facing the truth") in Bulgaria. In it he reveals his attitude to
Macedonian
identity and
Bulgarian
past in the
Republic of Macedonia
.
[10]
In the Summer of 2012 Georgievski published his autobiographical book "
It's me
". There he reveals a range of new things of the unknown history of the country, including the fact that he together with his
Serbian
counterpart
Zoran đinđi?
, discussed the exchange of territories between
Macedonia
,
Albania
and
Kosovo
. The book confirms that in 1999 he was summoned to the
White House
, where former
U.S. Secretary of State
Madeleine Albright
, sought permission from Macedonia ground forces of
NATO
to attack
Serbia
from the territory of the country. Among other things, he wrote that he had spent 15 minutes talking to former Serbian and
Yugoslav
President
Slobodan Milo?evi?
while he was visiting former Macedonian Interior Minister
Ljube Bo?koski
in the Scheveningen prison. Regarding the current state-political situation of the country, Georgievski concluded that today "the Macedonians are the biggest counterfeiters of the Balkan history".
[11]
According to him the present development of the
VMRO-DPMNE
is his personal failure. Georgievski claims, today it is a fake party without any ideology.
Professional and political biography
[
edit
]
- 1990?2002 President of the
VMRO-DPMNE
- 1991
Vice President of Macedonia
[12]
- 1992?1995 Representative in the Assembly of the Republic of Macedonia
- 1995?1998 Consulting in BS Consulting-Skopje
- 1998?2002 Prime Minister of the Republic of Macedonia
- 2002?2007 President of
VMRO-NP
- 2012? nowadays President of
VMRO-NP
References
[
edit
]
- ^
"Георгиевски: Не го менувам ставот за Бугари?а, имам три држав?анства, може да ме протераат од Македони?а"
.
- ^
Georgievski has stated in his book
Остварува?е на вековниот сон
(Realization of the Immortal Dream), 2001,
ISBN
9989-610-06-1
, that the reason why his name is
Ljub?o
and not
Ljup?o
(under Macedonian writing rules) is because of a mistake in the scribe. In fact from 1996 he began to write his first name no longer with "p", according to the Serbian and Macedonian (phonetic) spelling, but with "b", according to the Bulgarian etymological spelling.
- ^
a
b
20 years Macedonian independence
(TV documentary film),
Macedonian Radio-Television
, 2011
- ^
Victims of Communism
(TV documentary series),
Macedonian Radio-Television
, 2011 episode. 7
- ^
Macedonia: Warlords & Rebels in the Balkans
, John Phillips, I.B.Tauris, 2004,
ISBN
186064841X
, p. 76.
- ^
Macedonia’s Former PM Ljubco Georgievski Received Bulgarian Citizenship
, Macedonian News, 16 July 2006
- ^
"Former Macedonian Prime Minister received a Bulgarian passport" (in Bulgarian). Trud. 16 July 2006.
- ^
Contested Ethnic Identity: The Case of Macedonian Immigrants in Toronto, 1900-1996, Chris Kostov, Peter Lang, 2010,
ISBN
3034301960
, p. 109.
- ^
Citizenship After Yugoslavia, Jo Shaw, Igor ?tiks, Routledge, 2013,
ISBN
1317967070
, p. 110.
- ^
"Защо се срамуваме и бягаме от факта, че всичко това, което е позитивна македонска революционна традиция, произлиза тъкмо от екзархийския дял на македонския народ. Няма да кажем някаква нова истина, ако споменем факта, че и Гоце Делчев, и Даме Груев, и Гьорче Петров, и Пере Тошев ? трябва ли да редя и броя всички ? са били учители на Българската екзархия в Македония."
"Lyubcho Georgievski seeks the spirit of Gotse Delchev"
(in Bulgarian). Standart News. 28 August 2007. Archived from
the original
on 27 September 2007
. Retrieved
29 August
2007
.
- ^
Ex-Macedonian PM: đinđi? wanted exchange of territory ? B92, June 29, 2012.
Archived
26 December 2014 at the
Wayback Machine
- ^
Bideleux, Robert; Jeffries, Ian (24 January 2007).
The Balkans: A Post-Communist History
.
ISBN
9781134583287
.