Campaign and election On 25 January 2009, the strongest party in the
Macedonian parliament,
VMRO-DPMNE, appointed Ivanov as the party's presidential candidate for the
presidential election. 1,016 party delegates voted for his candidacy at the party's convention. Although he was proposed as a candidate by VMRO-DPMNE, he was not a member of the party. During his campaign, Ivanov announced that if he is going to be elected president, he would "insist on a meeting between the
President of the Republic of Macedonia and the
President of the Republic of Greece" and that one of his highest priorities is the resolution of the country's long-running
name dispute with
Greece. In the first round on 22 March of the presidential election, 343,374 (35.06%) citizens of the Republic of Macedonia voted for Ivanov, the second being the candidate of the
Social Democrats,
Ljubomir Frčkoski, with 20.45% of the votes. Ivanov won the second round of the presidential election on 5 April with 453,616 votes; opposition candidate Ljubomir Frčkoski received 264,828 votes. One day after his election, Ivanov reaffirmed his intention for a meeting to be realised between him and the president of Greece,
Karolos Papoulias. He added that he will officialise his invitation just after taking office. After a meeting with the president of the
Democratic Union for Integration,
Ali Ahmeti, Ivanov announced that he will also include ethnic Albanian intellectuals in his future presidential cabinet. On 16 April, Ivanov on a ceremony received the presidential certificate from the State Election Commission.
Inauguration Ivanov took office on 12 May 2009, thereby succeeding
Branko Crvenkovski. After taking the oath, he held his inauguration speech in the
Macedonian parliament and made public his priorities -
EU and
NATO membership, economic recovery, inner stability, interethnic relations and good relations with the neighbouring countries, especially with
Greece. The swearing-in ceremony was attended by Crvenkovski,
prime minister Nikola Gruevski, the first president of independent Republic of Macedonia
Kiro Gligorov,
military officials, leaders of the religious communities in Macedonia and foreign ambassadors in the country. Also, four foreign statesmen were present — the
president of
Serbia Boris Tadić, the
president of
Montenegro Filip Vujanović, the
president of
Croatia Stjepan Mesić and the
president of
Albania Bamir Topi.
First term On the day Ivanov officially became president of his country, he sent a letter to the president of the United States
Barack Obama in which he underlined the Republic of Macedonia's aim to join
NATO and EU and to find a "mutually acceptable solution" to the "name difference" with neighbouring
Greece. He also thanked Obama for his words of support at the
2009 NATO Summit. One day after the inauguration, Ivanov together with Prime Minister Gruevski travelled to
Brussels to meet with European Union and NATO officials. Ivanov claimed to promote a Macedonian model of a multi-ethnic society and
Pax Europaea, a united Europe living in peace and respecting the diversity and identity of the nations of Europe. On 20 June 2012, he approved a
lustration law, regarded as unconstitutional by some human rights groups, and a lawsuit was filed against him in July. In 2013, he expressed support for Turkish president
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan during the anti-government protests in Turkey, which resulted in some Macedonians criticising him and others supporting him.
Second term in Baku, 10 March 2016 in Moscow, 24 May 2017 in Brasília, 12 December 2017 His ally, Gruevski, supported his election. Ivanov was re-elected as President of the Republic of Macedonia for a second term on 27 April 2014. The State Election Commission certified his new presidential term on 2 May. The second inauguration of Ivanov was held on 12 May in the
Macedonian parliament. The swearing-in ceremony was attended by Gruevski,
military officials, leaders of the religious communities in Macedonia and foreign ambassadors in the county. The inauguration was boycotted by the
Democratic Union for Integration, the largest Albanian political party in the Republic of Macedonia and the
Social Democratic Union of Macedonia, the largest opposition party in Macedonia. Foreign dignitaries did not attend too. In March 2016, Ivanov stated that the
European Union and Germany had failed the Republic of Macedonia and other Balkan countries in the
European migrant crisis, and claimed that Macedonia did not receive any funding. The German Chancellery rejected his criticism. The Chancellery and the
European Commission disputed his claim about the funding. On 12 April 2016, Ivanov halted judicial inquiries into officials involved in a wiretap scandal. Ivanov stated to have done so in the best interest of the country, and to end the political crisis. A move that the opposition called Ivanov's coup d'état and an effective disagreement to cooperate and find a common ground solution to the problem. EU officials condemned this decision. His own party,
VMRO-DPMNE, did not agree with his action. Opposition media called it a political manoeuvre to prevent further judicial inquiry by the special prosecutor Katica Janeva, proposed by the international community to normalise the political situation. Opposition leader
Zoran Zaev subsequently called for protests. Anti-government rallies also spread in other cities. On 27 May and 6 June, under domestic and international pressure, he annulled his pardons. The
2016 parliamentary elections ended in a stalemate. Gruevski failed to form a governmental coalition because he was unable to reach an understanding with Albanian parties. His office in Skopje was renovated and reopened in 2017. In March 2017, he refused to give SDSM a mandate to form a governmental cabinet, violating the constitution. Ivanov claimed that he refused because the unity, sovereignty and independence of the country were threatened, which was assessed as false by fact-checking service Truthmeter. After Zaev guaranteed the preservation of the unitary character, territorial integrity and sovereignty of Macedonia, Ivanov gave him the mandate on 17 May. In 17 January 2018, he vetoed the Law on the Use of Languages, which extends the official usage of the Albanian language in the country. He visited Turkey in February 2018, seeking support from the country in the naming dispute with Greece, while Turkey expected support against
Fethullah Gülen's supporters after the
2016 coup attempt. He stated in June that he would not sign a name change deal with Greece, claiming that it gave too many concessions. In September, he called on voters to boycott the country's
name change referendum in an address in the 73rd session of the
United Nations General Assembly, referring to it as a "historical suicide." After the country's name was changed to North Macedonia in 2019 as a result of the
Prespa agreement, Ivanov refused to sign laws that contained the new name and to rename the name of his office. He was succeeded by
Stevo Pendarovski, who won the
2019 presidential election, and attended his inauguration ceremony on 12 May. ==Personal life and views==