Colour Revolution in Northern Macedonia: Technologies of the Pro-Western Opposition

Abstract

The article discusses the ‘technologies’ of the colour revolution used in Northern Macedonia starting from the analysis of the activity of the pro-Western opposition (since 2011) aimed at political destabilization and preparation for protest actions. In 2015, indeed, the pro-Western opposition was able to mobilize a significant number of protesters in Skopje and organize a so-called “Maidan.” Due to this large manifestation and protests, N. Gruevski announced his resignation as Prime Minister, a transitional government was established, and the results of early parliamentary elections were invalidated. In 2017, a pro-Western politician, leader of the SDSM party, Z. Zaev, became Prime Minister and in 2020 new parliamentary elections were held. The victory of the parliamentary coalition “We can” (led by the SDSM party), which gained more seats than the VMRO-DPMNE party in the Parliament, allowed Z. Zaev to form a government. The results of the study show that since 2011 the pro-Western opposition has destabilized the political situation in the country organizing a protest movement. The pro-Western opposition also carried out a series of ‘information attacks’, spreading unconfirmed information compromising N. Gruevski and Sasho Mijalkov (a cousin of N. Gruevski, who led the secret police). These elements allowed the opposition to mobilize the population in Skopje and organize a colour revolution, which overthrew the Prime Minister and led to a change in the general balance of political forces in the country.

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