President Stevo Pendarovski announced on Wednesday that he won’t seek reelection in the upcoming May 8, 2024 elections, although he didn’t provide a specific reason for this decision.

Pendarovski, the fifth President of Macedonia, began his term on May 12, 2019. His political journey includes a previous presidential run in 2014, where he lost to the incumbent President Gjorge Ivanov. In 2019, he secured the presidency as the unified candidate of SDSM, DUI, and numerous other political parties, defeating VMRO-DPMNE’s candidate, university professor Gordana Siljanovska-Davkova.