The Role of the President in Policy-Making in Macedonia
The Role of the President in Policy-Making in Macedonia

Summary/Abstract: This paper aims at dealing with several issues regarding the role of the President in Macedonia, having in mind first of all the fact that it is a parliamentary country where the President does not have a full executive role. Therefore, we should focus on his role in balancing powers in a multi-ethnic, multicultural and multi-religious state, as is Macedonia. This includes the process of electing the president, the constitutional order and the decision-making role of the president in this type of government. We will also deal with the president’s contribution in establishing sustainable relations among political factors both at a national and international level, especially when it comes to the political crisis between the position and opposition, also emphasized in the last EU Commission report of 2013, as well as the everlasting problem with its southern neighbor, Greece, with regard to the name dispute. The political dialogue and promotion of human rights and freedoms are some of the main issues the president should be concerned with, especially as regards the rights and freedoms of the Albanians in Macedonia who comprise the second largest ethnic community in the country, in order to have a functional democratic state. This raises the issue of the legitimacy of the president as a president of all the citizens in Macedonia, which was further complicated by the latest changes in the legislation.

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