FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE THE USE OF THE PRESIDENTIAL VETO – THE MACEDONIAN CASE

Abstract

Pursuant to Article 83 of the Constitution of the Republic of Macedonia „the duty of the President of the Republic is inconsistent with any other public office performance, profession or position in a political party.“ But without the support of the two dominant parties on the Macedonian political scene, VMRO-DPMNE and SDSM, not any pretender for this position, within a time pan of more than a quarter century of political pluralism in Macedonia, could have been chosen. In the comparative constitutional law, as well as the comparative science of contemporary political systems, the use of the veto by the president, if defined and allowed by a constitution, is one of the indicators of the so-called presidential activism, a frequently used term in literature, yet without a universal definition. The purpose of this paper is precisely the analysis of the way in which the veto power in the Republic of Macedonia is used by all previous presidents, given the fact that this right is enabled by Article 75 of the Macedonian constitution, with a special focus on the factors which influence the use of the presidential veto. The use of the suspensive veto, as an act of presidential activism, by all four presidents who have completed their term, will be analyzed through the prism of eight criteria.