Editing VMRO-DPMNE (section)

===Foundation and rise to power===
Following the death of Yugoslav President [[Josip Broz Tito]] in 1980, [[Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia|SFR Yugoslavia]] began to disintegrate and democratic politics were revived in Macedonia. Many exiles returned to then [[Socialist Republic of Macedonia|SR Macedonia]] from abroad, and a new generation of young Macedonian intellectuals rediscovered the history of [[Macedonian nationalism]]. [[Dragan Bogdanovski]] who was a proclaimed Macedonian rights movement activist had made a blueprint for a ''Democratic Party for Macedonian National Unity''. He had also made a [[statute]], book of rules, and an instruction of how the party will work. [[Ljubčo Georgievski]] and Bogdanovski, Boris Zmejkovski, and a few other activists agreed to make a party for a future independent Macedonia. Under the name VMRO–DPMNE, it was founded on 17 June 1990 in [[Skopje]],<ref>{{cite book |title=Walking on the Edge: Consolidating Multiethnic Macedonia, 1989–2004 |author=Židas Daskalovski |publisher=Globic Press |date=2006 |page=46 |isbn=9780977666232}}</ref> as a Macedonian nationalist and anti-communist party.<ref>{{cite book |editor1-last=Jenkins |editor1-first=Brian |editor2-last=Sofos |editor2-first=Spyros A. |title=Nation and Identity in Contemporary Europe |date=1996 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=9780415123129 |page=255}}</ref><ref name="ptb" /><ref name="Bugajski1995">{{cite book|author-link=Janusz Bugajski|first=Janusz|last=Bugajski|title=Ethnic Politics in Eastern Europe: A Guide to Nationality Policies, Organizations, and Parties|url=https://archive.org/details/ethnicpoliticsin0000buga/page/111|year=1995|publisher=[[M. E. Sharpe]]|isbn=978-0-7656-1911-2|page=463}}</ref> Georgievski was elected as the party's first president in the constituent assembly.<ref name="ppwb">{{cite book |editor1-last=Gianluca Passarelli |title=The Presidentialisation of Political Parties in the Western Balkans |date=2018 |publisher=Springer |isbn=9783319973524 |pages=101–102, 106}}</ref> The party advocated for the independence of Macedonia, the withdrawal of the [[Yugoslav National Army]], creation of a [[Army of North Macedonia|Macedonian defence force]], establishment of an independent currency and international recognition as a sovereign state.<ref>{{cite book |author=Alice Ackermann |title=Making Peace Prevail: Preventing Violent Conflict in Macedonia |date=2000 |publisher=Syracuse University Press |isbn=9780815606024 |page=57}}</ref> 

After the [[1990 Macedonian parliamentary election|first multi-party elections]] in 1990, VMRO–DPMNE became the strongest party in the parliament.<ref name="LevitskyWay">{{cite book |author1=Steven Levitsky |author2=Lucan A. Way |title=Competitive Authoritarianism: Hybrid Regimes After the Cold War |date=2010 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=9780521709156 |pages=125–128}}</ref> It did not form a government because it did not achieve a majority of seats; this forced it to form a coalition with an ethnic Albanian party, but it refused to do so. The party boycotted the second round of the [[1994 Macedonian general election|1994 elections]] claiming fraud in the first round.<ref name="ppwb" /> During the early 1990s, the party presented itself as an extreme right-wing nationalist party with anti-Albanian sentiments.<ref name="ptb" /> It also promoted the irredentist concept of [[United Macedonia]].<ref>{{cite book |author=Loring Danforth |title=The Macedonian Conflict: Ethnic Nationalism in a Transnational World |date=1995 |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=0691043574 |page=144 |quote=...the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization – Democratic Party for Macedonian National Unity (VMRO-DPMNE), an ultranationalist party whose irredentist platform called for the creation of a "United Macedonia".}}</ref> By the mid-1990s, it created offices in most major cities.<ref name="LevitskyWay" /> The party opposed the 1995 Interim Accord with Greece.<ref>{{cite book |author=Jane K. Cowan |title=Macedonia: The Politics of Identity and Difference |date=2000 |publisher=Pluto Press |isbn=9780745315898 |page=133}}</ref> During that period, the party moderated its rhetoric.<ref name="ptb" /> After winning the [[1998 Macedonian parliamentary election|1998 election]], VMRO–DPMNE formed a coalition government with the [[Democratic Alternative (North Macedonia)|Democratic Alternative]] and [[Democratic Party of Albanians]] (DPA), with Georgievski as Prime Minister.<ref name="ppwb" /> In 1999, VMRO–DPMNE's candidate [[Boris Trajkovski]] was elected President. Under Georgievski, there was an improvement in [[Bulgaria–North Macedonia relations|Bulgaria–Macedonia relations]].<ref name="db" /> He signed a bilateral agreement with Bulgarian prime minister [[Ivan Kostov]] regarding good neighbourly relations.<ref name="emrrm" />

In 2001, the party participated in a government of national unity.<ref>{{cite book |editor1=Marc Weller |editor2=Barbara Metzger |editor3=Niall Johnson |title=Settling Self-Determination Disputes: Complex Power-sharing in Theory and Practice |date=2008 |publisher=BRILL |isbn=9789004164826 |pages=275}}</ref> VMRO–DPMNE's government was defeated at the [[2002 Macedonian parliamentary election|2002 parliamentary elections]]. In an alliance with the [[Liberal Party of Macedonia]], VMRO–DPMNE won 28 out of 120 seats. In 2004, Trajkovski died in a plane crash and [[Branko Crvenkovski]] was elected president, defeating VMRO–DPMNE's candidate [[Saško Kedev]]. After losing the 2002 elections, Georgievski left the party and established the [[VMRO – People's Party|VMRO-NP]] in 2004.<ref name="db" />

[[Nikola Gruevski]] was elected as the new leader of the party in May 2003.<ref name="ppwb" /> The widespread public support for EU membership in the 2000s encouraged the party to evolve into a moderate and pro-European party.<ref name="LevitskyWay" /> It also rebranded itself as centre-right and Christian democratic.<ref name="Berglund"/> VMRO-DPMNE opposed the legalisation of the [[Tetovo University]] in early 2004.<ref name="aec" /> The party became the largest party in parliament again after a net gain of over a dozen seats in the [[2006 Macedonian parliamentary election|2006 parliamentary elections]]. With 44 of 120 seats, the party formed a government in coalition with the DPA again, with Gruevski becoming the prime minister.<ref name="ppwb" /> In its 2006 party programme, it emphasised the pursuit of EU and NATO membership as its major foreign policy goals.<ref>{{cite book |author=Christopher K. Lamont |title=International Criminal Justice and the Politics of Compliance |date=2010 |publisher=Ashgate |isbn=9780754679653 |page=98}}</ref> On 15 May 2007, the party became an observer-member of the [[European People's Party]].<ref name="db" />

The party won [[2008 Macedonian parliamentary election|2008 early parliamentary elections]]. In the 120-seat Assembly, VMRO–DPMNE won 63 seats and formed a coalition government with the Democratic Union for Integration.<ref name="PEE"/><ref name="ppwb" /> In 2009, the VMRO–DPMNE-led coalition "For a better Macedonia" won 56 out of 84 [[Municipalities of North Macedonia|municipalities]], the party's presidential candidate [[Gjorge Ivanov]] also won the [[2009 Macedonian presidential election|presidential election]].<ref>{{cite web |title=ВМРО-ДПМНЕ апсолутен победник со 56 градоначалници |url=http://www.vecer.com.mk/default.asp?ItemID=D535691992594942B020D2E4139D5C91 |website=Večer |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110928154150/http://www.vecer.com.mk/default.asp?ItemID=D535691992594942B020D2E4139D5C91 |date=28 September 2011 |archive-date=28 September 2011 |language=mk}}</ref> The party won again in the [[2011 Macedonian parliamentary election|2011 early parliamentary elections]]. VMRO–DPMNE won 56 seats of the 120-seat Assembly of the Republic of Macedonia, the party formed a government in coalition with the Democratic Union for Integration in the Macedonian Parliament (mandate period 2011–2015). In 2014, [[2014 Macedonian general election|early parliamentary elections]] were held together with the presidential election, VMRO–DPMNE won again 61 seats of the 120-seat Assembly and formed a [[Cabinet of Nikola Gruevski IV|government in coalition]] with the [[Democratic Union for Integration]] (mandate period 2014–2018).