Manifestations of ethnopolitical identity in the narratives of the 2024 presidential election campaign in the Republic of North Macedonia

The article examines the ethnopolitical narratives and symbolic politics technologies used by candidates during the 2024 presidential elections in the Republic of North Macedonia (RNM). It focuses on analyzing electoral programs, public speeches, and the symbolic visualization of political strategies that reflect candidates' positions on issues of national identity, euro-integration, and interethnic relations. The subject of the research includes ethnopolitical (including identity) narratives and their embodiment in the electoral campaign through symbolic politics technologies. The emphasis is placed on the political and managerial potentials of the presidency in the context of developing ethnopolitical contradictions between the Macedonian majority and the Albanian minority. The research revealed that the key narrative of the campaign became the theme of euro-integration; however, candidates interpreted its implications for Macedonian identity differently. The methodological framework includes systemic and institutional approaches for analyzing the political mechanisms in RNM; comparative ethnopolitical analysis that allows for the comparison of candidates' strategies in the context of the country's ethnic heterogeneity; discourse analysis of electoral programs and public speeches; analysis of the symbolic visualization techniques of political concepts (including the design of campaign materials); and analysis of secondary statistical data. The conclusions of the article emphasize that, despite evident ethnopolitical polarization, candidates from the largest political parties vying for victory avoided radical statements, striving to maintain the symbolic-political role of the president as a guarantor of the unity of the civil nation. Macedonian candidates sought to preserve national identity while criticizing concessions to Greece and Bulgaria, whereas Albanian candidates emphasized consociational democracy and the priority of European values. The incumbent president occupied a compromise position, combining support for euro-integration with the rhetoric of all-Macedonian civic unity. However, the electoral programs of the candidates reflected deep differences that exist among ethnic Macedonians and Albanians in understanding the future of the country, indicating the persistence of significant ethnopolitical tensions in Macedonian society.

Republic of North Macedonia, nation-state building, ethnopolitics, national identity, interethnic relations, Albanian minority, institution of the presidency, presidential elections, political narratives, technologies of symbolic politics