Nikola Gruevski

Nikola Gruevski Никола Груевски
Prime Minister of Macedonia
Incumbent
Assumed office 27 August 2006
President	Branko Crvenkovski
Preceded by	Vlado Bučkovski
Personal details
Born	(1970-08-31) 31 August 1970 Skopje, SR Macedonia, SFR Yugoslavia
Political party	VMRO-DPMNE
Spouse	Borkica Manceva

Nikola Gruevski (Никола Груевски) (born 31 August, 1970 in Skopje) is the prime minister of the Republic of Macedonia since August 27 2006. He is also the leader of VMRO-DPMNE since May 2003. He was Minister of Finance in the VMRO-DPMNE government led by Ljubčo Georgievski until September 2002.

Among Gruevski's achievements as Minister of Finance was the privatisation of Fenimak. The government which sold the Macedonian Telecom to Hungarian Matav. Gruevski also implemented financial reforms, including the VAT (Value Added Tax) of 18%, requiring fiscal receipts for all macedonian businesses, which was a program designed to fight tax evasion. His most famous program was "Купувајте Македонски Производи" ("Buy Macedonian Products"), which promoted buying macedonian products, designated by logo with a sun with a happy face. His hope was that the program would boost domestic businesses.

After VMRO-DPMNE was defeated in the parliamentary elections in 2002, there was a period of infighting within the party. Gruevski emerged as the pro-EU leader, and was elected as a leader of the party, after Ljubčo Georgievski left the position. The former prime minister set up his own party (VMRO-People's Party), but VMRO-DPMNE retained most of the party's supporters.

The VMRO-DPMNE won the parliamentary elections of 5 July 2006. On August 25th he constituted the new government. His government has many new faces, mostly in their 30s in key ministries and other positions. He was the first to incorporate Macedonian expatriates from various world-wide positions as CEO's in his new government.

In June 2007, he attended a meeting in Tirana, Albania along with U.S President George W. Bush, and the Prime Ministers of Albania and Croatia.

On the 1 June 2008, his party won the parliamentary election for a second time in a row, winning more than half of the seats in the parliament according to the unofficial results. He is to form a government soon. The polling was marred by a number of violent incidents and allegations of fraud in some ethnic Albanian dominated municipalities.

Part of his ancestry stems from the northern Greek region of Florina, as is the case with many ethnic Macedonians through out the republic and abroad.

Books

• Gruevski, Nikola and Vaknin, Sam Macedonian Economy on a Crossroads, Skopje, NIP Noval Literatura, 1998. ISBN 9989610010

External links

• Biography of Gruevski at the Homepage of the Government of the Republic of Macedonia
• Curriculum Vitae written by Nikola Gruevski
• Book: Makedonskata ekonomija na krstopat : na patot kon pozdrava ekonomija by Nikola Gruevski and Sam Vaknin