Nikola Gruevski Никола Груевски
Prime Minister of Macedonia
Incumbent
Assumed office  27 August 2006
President	Branko Crvenkovski Gjorge Ivanov
Preceded by	Vlado Bučkovski
Born	31 August 1970 (1970-08-31) (age 39) Skopje, Yugoslavia (now Macedonia)
Political party	VMRO-DPMNE
Spouse(s)	Borkica Gruevska
Religion	Macedonian Orthodoxy

Nikola Gruevski (Macedonian: Никола Груевски, [ˈnikɔla ˈɡruɛfski] (help·info)) (born 31 August 1970 in Skopje) has been the Prime Minister of the Republic of Macedonia since 27 August 2006. He has also been 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.

[edit] Personal life

Gruevski completed primary and secondary education in Skopje. After having graduated from the Faculty of Economics at St. Clement of Ohrid University of Bitola in 1994, he worked in the banking sector. In 1996 he also acquired qualifications for the international capital market from the London Securities Institute.^[1] On 12 December 2006, he obtained a Master’s degree from the Faculty of Economics at Ss. Cyril and Methodius University of Skopje.^[2] Gruevski founded the Brokerage Association of the Republic of Macedonia in 1998 as its president and made the first transaction at the Macedonian Stock Exchange.^[3]

Gruevski is married to Borkica Gruevska and has a daughter with her called Anastasija.^[4]

Gruevski has family roots in Greek Macedonia ("Aegean Macedonia"). His paternal grandparents stem from Achlada (Greek: Αχλάδα; Macedonian: Крушоради, Krušoradi),^[5] a village in the Meliti municipality of the Florina Prefecture, Greece, where his family had the Hellenized surname Grouios (Γρούϊος).^[5] His grandmother emigrated to the Socialist Republic of Macedonia during the Greek Civil War after having lost her husband in the Greco-Italian War.^[6]

[edit] Political career

[edit] Minister of Finance

The government under Ljubčo Georgievski sold the Macedonian Telecom to Hungarian Matav. Gruevski also implemented financial reforms, including the value added tax of 18%, requiring fiscal receipts for all Macedonian businesses, which was a program designed to fight tax evasion.

[edit] Party leader

After VMRO-DPMNE was defeated in the Macedonian parliamentary election, 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.

Nikola Gruevski announcing victory of 2006 parliamentary elections on Macedonia Square in Skopje

The VMRO-DPMNE won the Macedonian parliamentary election, 2006. On August 25 he constituted the new government. His government has many new faces, mostly in their 30s in key ministries and other positions.

In June 2007, he attended a meeting in Tirana, Albania along with U.S President George W. Bush, President of the United States, Sali Berisha, Prime Minister of Albania and Ivo Sanader, Prime Minister of Croatia.

On 1 June 2008, the coalition led by his party VMRO-DPMNE won Macedonian parliamentary election, 2008, their second electoral victory in a row, winning more than half of the seats in the parliament.^[7] The polling was marred by a number of violent incidents and allegations of fraud in some ethnic Albanian dominated municipalities. He created a government with the Democratic Union for Integration.^[8]

[edit] Books

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

• Gruevski, Nikola The Way Out

[edit] References

[edit] External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Nikola Gruevski

• 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