During the period of the
Socialist Republic of Macedonia, there was a collective presidency which was abolished in 1991. Its first president was
Metodija Andonov Čento, elected at the first plenary session of
ASNOM, when the modern state was formed, while the last one was Vladimir Mitkov. Following the transition from
socialist system to
parliamentary democracy in 1990, the Socialist Republic of Macedonia changed the collective leadership with a single-president post in 1991, few months before independence.
Kiro Gligorov became the first president of the Socialist Republic of Macedonia on 27 January 1991. On 16 April 1991 the parliament adopted a
constitutional amendment removing the term "Socialist" from the official name of the country, and on 7 June of the same year, the new name
Republic of Macedonia was officially established. Hence Gligorov continued his function as President of the Republic of Macedonia. After the process of
dissolution of Yugoslavia began, the Republic of Macedonia proclaimed full independence following a referendum held on 8 September 1991. Kiro Gligorov was incapacitated after an assassination attempt in 1995.
Stojan Andov served as acting president for 98 days during Gligorov's recovery. On completing his second term as
head of the independent state, Gligorov was succeeded by
Boris Trajkovski in 1999. Following Trajkovski's death in 2004, he was succeeded by
Branko Crvenkovski.
Gjorge Ivanov won the 2009 presidential election and took office on 12 May 2009. He was re-elected in 2014. The position initially had some considerable powers, as Macedonia functioned within the framework of a de facto semi-presidential republic. The president had control over the military and was the primary actor when it came to setting the foreign policy agenda. As such, both Gligorov and Trajkovski were the primary representatives of the fledgling republic abroad. The 2001 Ohrid Agreement, brokered by President Trajkovski in an effort to reduce interethnic tensions in the country, led to the adoption of constitutional amendments on November 16, 2001, which, in addition to granting representational rights to the Albanian-speaking minority, also stripped the president of any executive authority he previously had. President Trajkovski respected this arrangement for the remainder of his term, with authority over foreign policy passing first to Prime Minister
Ljupco Georgievski and then to Prime Minister
Branko Crvenkovski. After Trajkovski's tragic death in 2004, Crvenkovski was elected as the next president, and it was widely expected that he would remain in de facto control of the government. Owing to his popularity in the Social Democratic Union of Macedonia, Crvenkovski maintained some level of control over foreign affairs during the premiership of
Hari Kostov, but with the election of
Vlado Buckovski, the new leader of the Social Democratic Union, as prime minister, Crvenkovski largely refrained from interfering with the government and limited his activities to ceremonial matters. While Crvenkovski was opposed to
Nikola Gruevski after the latter's election as prime minister, there was little that he could have done, as by that time the presidency had very little authority. In 2009, Crvenkovski was replaced as president by
Gjorge Ivanov, an ally of Gruevski. After Greuvski resigned in 2016, an interim government led by
Emil Dimitriev was inaugurated, but President Gjorge Ivanov largely took de facto lead over governance and halted judicial inquiries into Gruevski administration officials implicated in the wiretapping scandal. This caused massive protests, including calls for Ivanov's impeachment. With the inauguration of
Zoran Zaev executive authority returned to the government. In 2019, Ivanov was succeeded by Zaev ally
Stevo Pendarovski as president. In 2020, Zaev briefly resigned as prime minister and was replaced by
Oliver Spasovski. During Spasovski's interim premiership, President Pendarovski came to the fore as the country's leader, most notably in first declaring and then ending the country's State of Emergency in the fight against COVID-19. Pendarovski largely gave up his increased executive authority when Zaev returned as prime minister at the end of the year. In 2022, Zaev was replaced as prime minister by
Dimitar Kovacevski.
Gordana Siljanovska-Davkova is the incumbent president and she took office on 12 May 2024. ==List of presidents==