Branko Crvenkovski

Branko Crvenkovski Бранко Црвенковски
President of Macedonia
In office 12 May 2004 – 12 May 2009
Prime Minister	Radmila Šekerinska Hari Kostov Radmila Šekerinska Vlado Bučkovski Nikola Gruevski
Preceded by	Boris Trajkovski
Succeeded by	Gjorge Ivanov
Prime Minister of Macedonia
In office 17 August 1992 – 30 November 1998
President	Kiro Gligorov Stojan Andov Kiro Gligorov
Preceded by	Nikola Kljusev
Succeeded by	Ljubco Georgievski
In office 1 November 2002 – 12 May 2004
President	Boris Trajkovski Ljupco Jordanovski
Preceded by	Ljubco Georgievski
Succeeded by	Radmila Šekerinska
Personal details
Born	(1962-10-12) 12 October 1962 Sarajevo, PR Bosnia and Herzegovina, FPR Yugoslavia
Political party	Social Democratic Union of Macedonia
Spouse	Jasna Crvenkovski
Nickname(s)	BC, (БЦ); The Pope (Папата)

Branko Crvenkovski (Macedonian: Бранко Црвенковски, ) (Sarajevo,October 12, 1962) is a former president of the Republic of Macedonia.

Crvenkovski was born in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, then part of SFR Yugoslavia .

In 1986 he obtained a bachelor's degree in Computer Science and Automation from the School of Electrical Engineering at the St. Cyril and Methodius University in Skopje.

He was elected member of the Assembly of the Socialist Republic of Macedonia at the first multi-party elections in Yugoslavia in 1990 after serving for several years as head of department at the Semos company in Skopje. A former communist, Crvenkovski has been at the head of the Social Democratic Union of Macedonia since April 1991.

On September 5, 1992 he became Macedonia's first prime minister after its secession from Yugoslavia and continued in the post for another four years following the December 1994 elections.

He served as Prime Minister from 1992 to 1998 and from 2002 until 2004. He was most recently elected in 2002 after his Social Democratic Union of Macedonia party won parliamentary elections.

In July 1996 he ordered that Albanian flags in front of government buildings in western part of the Republic of Macedonia be removed. The situation escalated with one person dead and many injured. In 2005, on his initiative, the Albanian flag was legalized.

He won the April 2004 presidential election against Sashko Kedev, and took office on May 12, 2004. He then resigned as prime minister.

Crvenkovski announced that he is not going to candidate for another term in the presidential elections in March 2009. He will probably return to the Social Democratic Union of Macedonia, which faced a heavy defeat in the 2008 parliamentary elections in Macedonia.

Branko Crvenkovski is an Honorary Member of The International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation

External links

• Official site of the President of the Republic of Macedonia