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VMRO-DPMNE (Political party, Macedonia)

ВМРО-ДПМНЕ

Flag of VMRO-DPMNE - Image by Željko Heimer, 20 November 2001

Presentation of VMRO-DPMNE
Official flag of VMRO-DPMNE
Unofficial flag of VMRO-DPMNE
Early flags of VMRO-DPMNE

See also:

Presentation of VMRO-DPMNE

The whole name of the party in Macedonian is Vnatrešna makedonska revolucionerna organizacija - Demokratska partija za makedonsko nacionalno edinstvo, Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization - Democratic Party for Macedonian National Unity.

VMRO-DPMNE is not a revolutionary party as the party name may suggest. Nowadays it is a Christian Democrat party that is moderately nationalistic. It was formed in 1990 as a Macedonian nationalist party, but during the years it has transformed itself to a Christian Democrat party. From 1998 to 2002 VMRO-DPMNE was the main party in the Macedonian government.

Zdravko Saveski, 20 October 2002

Official flag of VMRO-DPMNE

Article 5 of the party statutes says:

The Party has a coat of arms, a flag and an anthem.
The Party coat of arms is a stylized-shaped lion with a crown in gold colour pictured on a red shield. Above the shield is a red ribbon with yellow letters inscribed 1893-1990, and below the shield on a red ribbon is isnscribed with yellow letters the name of the party VMRO-DPMNE.
The Party flag has proportions of 1:2, divided along the length in red-black halves, in ratio one to each other as one to one, and in the upper left corner on the red field is set the Party coat of arms.

The flag and the coat of arms of the party are shown on the party website. However, the statutes mentioned above clearly state that the emblem should be placed in upper left corner, not in the middle as shown on that image.

Željko Heimer, 20 November 2001

1893 is the year when the Macedonian national-liberation organization called VMRO was formed and the year 1990 symbolizes the year when VMRO-DPMNE was formed, claiming to be the successor of the historical VMRO.

Zdravko Saveski, 20 October 2002

Unofficial flag of VMRO-DPMNE

Unofficial flag of VMRO-DPMNE - Image by Jorge Candeias, 10 December 2004

Back in July 2004, there were demonstrations in Macedonia against a project of decentralization that, among other things, would give some rights of self-rule to the areas with Albanian majority. The demonstrations were promoted by the rightist nationalist party VMRO-DPMNE, and included the display of flags.
The Portuguese newspaper Público published a large article on the issue, illustrated with a photo showing two demonstrators and a big flag, dark with a light lion rampant. Given the country and the party, I assume that it is a red flag with a yellow lion, a kind of unofficial flag of the party.

Jorge Candeias, 10 December 2004

Early flags of VMRO-DPMNE

Early flag of VMRO-DPMNE - Image by Tomislav Todorović & Jorge Candeias, 28 March 2008

This flag was seen on the TV in summer 1990, on a rally of VMRO-DPMNE and several other newly formed parties. It had a large lion and the party name's initials, all in yellow on red field. The letters "VMRO" and "DPMNE" were inscribed above and beneath the lion, respectively. The proportions of the flag were 2:3.
The interesting detail is that the flags of other parties which were seen also had red fields and the same proportions as that of VMRO-DPMNE, only the party emblems varied, so they might have been produced by the same manufacturer. Obviously, the similarity of the flags was not the problem for the rally participants: they all had the same demand at the time - the scheduling of multi-party elections - and the red flag was already well established as the Macedonian national symbol, too.
I have no information about the date of replacing of this flag with the present-day one, but it might have been in use until 1995, when the present-day statutes were adopted, or even until 1999, when the last amendments were made to the statutes.

Tomislav Todorović, 28 March 2008

An other earlierVMRO-DPMNE Macedonian flag is seen on a colour photo in a newspaper article, dated October 1998, about the unrest in Macedonia, where a group of young men where seen over and around a pickup truck, a few of them holding the flag.
The flag is red with a red shield fimbriated in gold, charged with a lion rampant also gold. The shield is topped by a golden sun (not the "Sun of Vergina", but a kind of mullet, seemingly with the same number of rays as the "Sun of Vergina"), and below the shield two letters are partially visible: the first one is an "M", the second either an "E" of an "F", still in gold. Unfortunately, the rest of the letters is outside the photo.
The same lion is painted in the door of the truck and a few of the men have it as an emblem in their coats. The door also has a "Sun of Vergina" sun painted.

Jorge Candeias & Stephen Schwartz , 27 February 2010