[2][7][12] The party claims that their goals and objectives are to express the tradition of the Macedonian people on whose political struggle and concepts it is based.

[15] Under the leadership of Ljubčo Georgievski in the 1990s, the party supported Macedonian independence from Socialist Yugoslavia, and led a policy of closer relationships with Bulgaria.

[21][further explanation needed] The party's full name consists of the acronyms "VMRO" (standing for Vnatrešna Makedonska Revolucionerna Organizacija and referencing the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO), a rebel movement formed in 1893)[22] and "DPMNE" (Democratic Party for Macedonian National Unity, Demokratska partija za makedonsko nacionalno edinstvo).

At that time the territory of the current North Macedonia was a province called Vardar Banovina, part of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia.

[31][32] Following the death of Yugoslav President Josip Broz Tito in 1980, SFR Yugoslavia began to disintegrate and democratic politics were revived in Macedonia.

Ljubčo Georgievski and Bogdanovski, Boris Zmejkovski, and a few other activists agreed to make a party for a future independent Macedonia.

In 2004, Trajkovski died in a plane crash and Branko Crvenkovski was elected president, defeating VMRO–DPMNE's candidate Saško Kedev.

VMRO–DPMNE won 56 seats of the 120-seat Assembly of the Republic of Macedonia, the party formed a government in coalition with the Democratic Union for Integration in the Macedonian Parliament (mandate period 2011–2015).

The party pursued the "antiquisation" policy between 2006 and 2017, in which it sought to claim ancient Macedonian figures like Alexander the Great and Philip II of Macedon for the country.

The policy was pursued since its coming to power in 2006,[44] and especially since Macedonia's non-invitation to NATO in 2008, as a way of putting pressure on Greece as well as in an attempt to construct a new identity on the basis of a presumed link to the world of antiquity.

[45][46] The policy received academic criticism as it demonstrated feebleness of archaeology and other historical disciplines in public discourse, as well as a danger of marginalization.

[48] Foreign diplomats warned that the policy reduced international sympathy for Macedonia's position in the naming dispute with Greece.

[45] SDSM was opposed to the Skopje 2014 project and alleged that the monuments could have cost six to ten times less than what the government paid, which may already have exceeded 600 million euros.

[49][50][51] In 2012, a statue of the member of the IMRO Simeon Radev, who was also a Bulgarian diplomat, was installed on the building of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs but it was later taken down, and according to Makfax, with the explanation that it had been a mistake.

[57][58] VMRO-DPMNE was widely accused of nepotism and authoritarianism and was involved in a series of wiretapping, corruption and money-laundering scandals, with the Macedonian Special Prosecution ordering in 2017 a series of investigations against the party's former leader and ex-Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski, as well as ministers and other high-ranked officials, for involvement in illegal activities.

[61] On 8 October 2018, Gordana Jankulovska, the former Minister of Interior and senior member of the party, was sentenced to six years in prison for illegally purchasing the Mercedes, which Gruevski had used secretly.

On 16 October 2018, US Assistant Secretary of State Wess Mitchell sent a letter to Mickoski, in which he expressed the disappointment of the United States with the positions of the party's leadership, including him personally, regarding its position against the Prespa agreement and asked him to "set aside partisan interests" and work to get the name change approved.

[68][17] In April 2022, a Bulgarian club named after the last leader of the historical IMRO, Ivan Mihailov, was officially opened in Bitola.

[77][78] The party is against the recognition of the Bulgarians in North Macedonia as an official ethnic minority, which is conditio sine qua non the country to become a member of the EU.