wh y w e l o s t
74
ernment officials seized TAT’s documentation, and the subsequent investigation yielded
no results. Prime Minister Crvenkovski, in a famous speech to parliament in 1997 shortly
after the TAT affair, recognized the failure of his war against organized crime.
This atmosphere in 1997-1998 of favoring only one political and business structure, an
enormous unemployment rate and a poorly performing economy provided a solid base
for the first victory of the opposition VMRO. The party had already started its restructur-
ing and was slowly losing its label of being a populist party. Many well-known intellectuals
joined it, and an Intellectuals Council was re-established as an official party body. At the
same time, the influential general secretary of VMRO, Boris Zmejkovski, was trying to
impose his structure over the party but was removed and expelled, which also brought
Macedonian intellectuals back into the party. This move increased the public’s acceptance
of the party.
SDSM also failed to improve the ethnic relations between Macedonians and the ethnic
Albanian minority, or to give ethnic Albanians additional rights to pursue higher educa-
tion in their mother tongue. The SDSM policy in this area was compromised by events
in Gostivar, when the mayor of the city, Rufi Osmani, and the mayor of Tetovo, Alajdin
Demiri, illegally flew the flag of the Republic of Albania next to the flag of the Republic of
Macedonia at the city hall. They were repeatedly asked to remove the flag and after failing
to do so, the police removed it with force. Four people were killed in the riots that fol-
lowed. Rufi Osmani and Alajdin Demiri were convicted and sentenced to twelve years in
prison, a somewhat harsh term which was out of line with traditional sentences for such
crimes. When VMRO later came to power, their sentences were revised, helping to bridge
the gap in ethnic relations between Macedonians and Albanians.
III. Victory and A Troubled Ruling
For the parliamentary elections in autumn 1998, the slogan “Changes for a Decent Life”
was successfully used by VMRO. A coalition with the Democratic Alternative (DA), a
political party recently established and led by Vasil Tupurkovski, a former chairman of the
Yugoslav presidency, was formed. Tupurkovski’s main slogan, that he will bring a “billion
dollars” worth of investments to Macedonia, was successful and believed by the people.
Tupurkovski’s former role as a Yugoslav official combined with his easy promises, brought
him and his party more than a hundred thousands votes and 12 seats in parliament.
But this was an “unnatural” relationship, made by a right-of-center political party with
a party generally defined as center-left, with officials of mainly socialist and Communist
origins. It was no wonder that this coalition was unstable and faced problems, as dem-
onstrated by its disintegration at the end of 2000. Nevertheless, VMRO needed a partner
which would bring swing voters to its side, even voters who had opposed VMRO rule.
The coalition of VMRO and DA won the parliamentary elections in October 1998 and
the VMRO leader, Ljubco Georgievski, was appointed prime minister in late November
and formed a government that also included the Democratic Party of Albanians (PDSH).
Together VMRO and DA controlled 62 of 120 seats, ousting the ruling SDSM which won
only 27 seats. The Albanian ethnic Party for Democratic Prosperity (PPD), which was
