The Most Famous

POLITICIANS from North Macedonia

This page contains a list of the greatest Macedonian Politicians. The pantheon dataset contains 19,576 Politicians, 31 of which were born in North Macedonia. This makes North Macedonia the birth place of the 77th most number of Politicians behind Ecuador, and New Zealand.

Top 10

The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the top 10 most legendary Macedonian Politicians of all time. This list of famous Macedonian Politicians is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity. Visit the rankings page to view the entire list of Macedonian Politicians.

1. Justinian I (482 - 565)

With an HPI of 83.83, Justinian I is the most famous Macedonian Politician. His biography has been translated into 100 different languages on wikipedia.

Justinian I ( just-IN-ee-ən; Latin: Iustinianus, Classical Latin: [juːstiːniˈaːnʊs]; Greek: Ἰουστινιανός, translit. Ioustinianós, Medieval Greek: [i.ustini.aˈnos]; 482 – 14 November 565), also known as Justinian the Great, was the Eastern Roman emperor from 527 to 565. His reign was marked by the ambitious but only partly realized renovatio imperii, or "restoration of the Empire". This ambition was expressed by the partial recovery of the territories of the defunct Western Roman Empire. His general, Belisarius, swiftly conquered the Vandal Kingdom in North Africa. Subsequently, Belisarius, Narses, and other generals conquered the Ostrogothic kingdom, restoring Dalmatia, Sicily, Italy, and Rome to the empire after more than half a century of rule by the Ostrogoths. The praetorian prefect Liberius reclaimed the south of the Iberian Peninsula, establishing the province of Spania. These campaigns re-established Roman control over the western Mediterranean, increasing the Empire's annual revenue by over a million solidi. During his reign, Justinian also subdued the Tzani, a people on the east coast of the Black Sea that had never been under Roman rule before. He engaged the Sasanian Empire in the east during Kavad I's reign, and later again during Khosrow I's reign; this second conflict was partially initiated due to his ambitions in the west. A still more resonant aspect of his legacy was the uniform rewriting of Roman law, the Corpus Juris Civilis, which is still the basis of civil law in many modern states. His reign also marked a blossoming of Eastern Roman (Byzantine) culture, and his building program yielded works such as the Hagia Sophia.

2. Justin I (450 - 527)

With an HPI of 71.26, Justin I is the 2nd most famous Macedonian Politician. His biography has been translated into 56 different languages.

Justin I (Latin: Iustinus; Greek: Ἰουστῖνος, translit. Ioustînos; c. 450 – 1 August 527), also called Justin the Thracian (Latin: Justinus Thrax; Greek: Ἰουστῖνος ὁ Θρᾷξ, translit. Ioustînos ho Thrâix), was Eastern Roman emperor from 518 to 527. Born to a peasant family, he rose through the ranks of the army to become commander of the imperial guard and when Emperor Anastasius died, he out-maneouvered his rivals and was elected as his successor, in spite of being around 68 years old. His reign is significant for the founding of the Justinian dynasty that included his eminent nephew, Justinian I, and three succeeding emperors. His consort was Empress Euphemia. He was noted for his strongly orthodox Christian views. This facilitated the ending of the Acacian schism between the churches of Rome and Constantinople, resulting in good relations between Justin and the papacy. Throughout his reign, he stressed the religious nature of his office and passed edicts against various Christian groups seen at the time as non-Orthodox. In foreign affairs, he used religion as an instrument of state. He endeavoured to cultivate client states on the borders of the Empire, and avoided any significant warfare until late in his reign.

3. Theodahad (480 - 536)

With an HPI of 63.99, Theodahad is the 3rd most famous Macedonian Politician. His biography has been translated into 38 different languages.

Theodahad, also known as Thiudahad (Latin: Flavius Theodahatus Rex, Theodahadus, Theodatus; c. 480 – December 536) was the co-monarch of the Ostrogothic Kingdom with his cousin Amalasuintha in 534 and sole ruler from April 535 through December 536. Compared to the reign of Theodoric the Great, his reign is generally considered a failure.

4. Kiro Gligorov (1917 - 2012)

With an HPI of 63.19, Kiro Gligorov is the 4th most famous Macedonian Politician. His biography has been translated into 46 different languages.

Kiro Gligorov (Macedonian: Киро Глигоров, pronounced [kiˈrɔ ɡliˈɡɔrɔf] ; 3 May 1917 – 1 January 2012) was a Macedonian politician who served as the first President of the Republic of Macedonia (now North Macedonia) from 1991 to 1999. He was born and raised in Štip, where he was also educated. He continued his education in Skopje and graduated in law in Belgrade. During World War II in Yugoslav Macedonia, he worked as a lawyer and participated in the partisan resistance. By the end of the war, he was an organiser of the Anti-fascist Assembly for the National Liberation of Macedonia, the predecessor of the Socialist Republic of Macedonia as a federal Yugoslav state. After the war, he served in various positions in Yugoslavia. For decades, he was a high-ranking official and an economist there. Prior to the breakup of Yugoslavia, Gligorov was an adviser for Ante Marković's market reform plan. Gligorov later played a pivotal role in Macedonia's peaceful secession from Yugoslavia and its international recognition. In 1995, he survived an assassination attempt, of which the perpetrators have not been found. For his role in its independence and political development, international researchers and the Macedonian public regard him as the father of the Macedonian state.

5. Nexhmije Hoxha (1921 - 2020)

With an HPI of 63.01, Nexhmije Hoxha is the 5th most famous Macedonian Politician. Her biography has been translated into 27 different languages.

Nexhmije Hoxha (Albanian pronunciation: [nɛdʒˈmijɛ ˈhɔdʒa]; née Xhuglini; 8 February 1921 – 26 February 2020) was an Albanian communist politician. For many years she was the wife of Enver Hoxha, the first leader of the Socialist People's Republic of Albania and the First Secretary of the Party of Labour of Albania. Very close to her husband, she attempted to remain politically influential after his death in 1985. She was one of the few spouses of a ruling communist party leader with a high political profile of her own.

6. Sigeric (370 - 415)

With an HPI of 61.56, Sigeric is the 6th most famous Macedonian Politician. His biography has been translated into 39 different languages.

Sigeric (? – 22 August 415) was a Visigoth king for seven days in 415 AD.

7. Stevo Pendarovski (b. 1963)

With an HPI of 59.20, Stevo Pendarovski is the 7th most famous Macedonian Politician. His biography has been translated into 54 different languages.

Stevo Pendarovski (Macedonian: Стево Пендаровски, pronounced ['stɛvɔ pɛn'darɔfski]; born 3 April 1963) is a Macedonian politician who serves as the 5th and current President of North Macedonia since 12 May 2019.

8. Lazar Koliševski (1914 - 2000)

With an HPI of 58.89, Lazar Koliševski is the 8th most famous Macedonian Politician. His biography has been translated into 22 different languages.

Lazar Koliševski (Macedonian: Лазар Колишевски [ˈlazar kɔˈliʃɛfski] ; 12 February 1914 – 6 July 2000) was a Macedonian Yugoslav communist political leader in the Socialist Republic of Macedonia and briefly in the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. He was closely allied with Josip Broz Tito.

9. Konstantin Tih (1240 - 1277)

With an HPI of 58.84, Konstantin Tih is the 9th most famous Macedonian Politician. His biography has been translated into 26 different languages.

Konstantin Tih (Bulgarian: Константин Тих Асен) or Constantine I Tikh (Константин I), was the tsar of Bulgaria from 1257 to 1277, he was offered the throne from Mitso Asen. He led the Bulgarian Empire at a time when the nearby Byzantine Empire disintegrated into rump states. To strengthen his position, he forged an alliance with one of the rump state—Nicaea—by marrying Irene, a daughter of Theodore II of the prominent Laskaris family. Early in his reign, his army invaded Severin, Hungary which outraged Béla IV; this led Hungarian troops to capture Vidin, an important town of the Bulgarian Empire and also saw the Hungarians besieging the Lower Danube region, leaving northwestern Bulgaria to Rostislav Mikhailovich (Béla's son-in-law), who had claimed Bulgaria in the years prior. When Michael VIII took over the throne of the Byzantine Empire (which led Konstantin to go to war with them in the 1260s) this saw Bulgaria losing significant territories to its two principal enemies, the Byzantines and Hungary. Later, when Tatars began attacking the Byzantines, Konstantin joined them in a unified attack but this failed to capture Michael VIII. After Stephen emerged victorious in the Hungarian civil war, he began attacking Bulgaria again and defeated Konstantin's army. He plundered Tarnovo and captured fortresses on the Danube in the mid to late 1260s. Later, Konstantin suffered an injury and was paralysed from the waist down. The paralysed Konstantin failed in preventing the Nogai Horde from plundering Bulgaria. Further worsening his situation, the latter part of his reign saw economic instability and his failed suppressing of a revolt ended his life.

10. Fethi Okyar (1880 - 1943)

With an HPI of 56.57, Fethi Okyar is the 10th most famous Macedonian Politician. His biography has been translated into 32 different languages.

Ali Fethi Okyar (29 April 1880 – 7 May 1943) was a Turkish diplomat and politician, who also served as a military officer and diplomat during the last decade of the Ottoman Empire. He was also the second Prime Minister of Turkey (1924–1925) and the second Speaker of the Turkish Parliament after Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.

People

Pantheon has 36 people classified as Macedonian politicians born between 370 and 1980. Of these 36, 19 (52.78%) of them are still alive today. The most famous living Macedonian politicians include Stevo Pendarovski, Gjorge Ivanov, and Nikola Gruevski. The most famous deceased Macedonian politicians include Justinian I, Justin I, and Theodahad. As of April 2024, 4 new Macedonian politicians have been added to Pantheon including Dimitar Kovačevski, Ljupčo Jordanovski, and Bujar Osmani.