Democratic Union for Integration


The Democratic Union for Integration is the largest Albanian political party in North Macedonia and the third largest political party in the country. It was formed immediately after the country's 2001 conflict between the National Liberation Army and the Macedonian Security Forces. The NLA leader Ali Ahmeti became party president.
In the 2002 parliamentary election, the party won 12.1% of the popular vote and 16 of 120 seats.
From 2002 to 2006 it was part of the ruling coalition along with the Social Democratic Union of Macedonia and the Liberal Democratic Party.
In the 2006 parliamentary election, the party formed coalition with Party for Democratic Prosperity and Democratic League of Bosniaks. This coalition received 12.2% of the vote and 16 seats. Although DUI won the largest number of seats among ethnic Albanian parties, since their Macedonian governmental partners lost the election, it was not invited by the new Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski to participate in the new government. Its place was taken by the second largest Albanian political party, the Democratic Party of the Albanians.
However, after the 2008 parliamentary early election, the party returned to government in coalition with VMRO-DPMNE.
In the 2011 parliamentary election, DUI received 10.2% of the total vote, winning 15 seats, a loss of the 3 seats from the previous election.

Election results

Parliament

Controversy

Skopje Fortress incident

After the foundations of a 13th-century church were found by a governmentally funded excavation within the Skopje Fortress complex, the Cultural Heritage Protection Office actioned a project to restore it in the form of a church museum. The DUI requested the government to halt construction in early 2011, which was ignored. Two weeks later, just under a hundred DUI supporters converged on the site on 11 February 2011, among them three high-ranking ethnic Albanian ministers, and some damaged part of the scaffolding.