Head of Macedonian Rightist Party Defects

Ljubco Georgievski

Georgievski, who previously was honorary president of the party, said the party will remain in opposition and will hold an emergency session on Sunday in order to consolidate itself.

Former head Marijan Dodovski defected on Wednesday, saying he was tired of what he called Georgievski’s “anti-Macedonian rhetoric”.

Accompanied by some of other members, he said the party was disbanding.

The split comes after another rightist party, VMRO – Macedonian, led by Boris Stojmenov, ceased to exist and joined VMRO DPMNE.

Both VMRO-People's Party and VMRO –Macedonian originated out of former dissatisfied members of VMRO DPMNE.

VMRO-People's Party was a sharp opponent of Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski in the June 2011 early general elections, accusing Gruevski of straying from nationalist principles.

However, Gruevski won in the elections while his critics on the right failed to secure a single seat.

Skopje political analyst Jove Kekenovski says Georgievski indisputably has more authority than the outgoing Marijan Dodovski.

“But it is questionable whether Georgievski will be successful” in uniting rightist voters in future, Kekenovski told Radio Free Europe on Thursday.

A former nationalist firebrand, Georgievski led VMRO DPMNE during the 1990s. He was Prime Minister from 1998 to 2002 after which he retreated from politics.

In 2009 he started to re-appear in public, taking the post of honorary president of VMRO-People's Party and criticizing Gruevski’s government. In February 2011, he announced his return to full-time politics.