Boris Trajkovski

North Macedonia must take a step forward towards the European Union, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told the Macedonian parliament ahead of a meeting where lawmakers are debating the so-called "French proposal" to start EU negotiations.

Von der Leyen concluded her address to the Macedonian MPs with a quote from the late President Boris Trajkovski:

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, North Macedonia this year decided against holding a traditional banquet to commemorate the anniversary of the signing of the historic 2001 Ohrid Peace Accord which ended a short-lived conflict that year by granting more rights to the country's ethnic Albanians.

A petition has been launched on social media in Macedonia urging the government to name a street in the capital Skopie after the recently deceased former Bulgarian President Zhelyu Zhelev.

Zhelev, Bulgaria's first democratically-elected President after the fall of communism in 1989, passed away on 30 January.

New probe: Macedonian president was not assassinated

SARAJEVO -- A series of mistakes made by the crew, adverse weather conditions and poor maintenance of the aircraft caused the crash killed Boris Trajkovski.

These findings are contained in a new report presented this week.

A new report into the death in 2004 of former Macedonian President Boris Trajkovski, conducted by a team of regional experts and released in Sarajevo on Tuesday, once again declared that the fatal plane crash was not the result of an assassination but an accident.

Polling stations will be open until 7pm Sunday.

This is the country’s fifth presidential election since Macedonia became independent in the 1990s.

For the purposes of the presidential vote, the country and the diaspora are considered a single electoral unit.

The candidate of the main ruling VMRO DPMNE party, incumbent President Gjorge Ivanov, launches his campaign with a rally in the town of Ohrid, the party’s traditional election launch venue.

Ivanov, who is competing for a secound five-year term in office, is running under the election slogan “The State Above All”, positioning himself as a proven defender of the country's interests.