Gjorge Ivanov was scheduled to be sworn in as the fourth president of the Republic of Macedonia at a ceremony in front of parliament in Skopje on May 12 2009.
 
A particular focus of interest was the line he would take on the country’s long-running dispute with Greece on the use of the name Macedonia. Although the role of president of Macedonia is mainly ceremonial, with the running of government in the hands of the prime minister and cabinet, Ivanov has pledged to make the resolution of the name dispute a priority.
 
Speaking after winning the presidential election runoff in April, in which he achieved a 59 per cent share of the vote and had the backing of prime minister Nikola Gruevski’s VMRO-DPMNE party, Ivanov said that he would seek a reasonable compromise that would not harm Macedonian identity.
Ivanov has indicated that he would seek a meeting with his Greek counterpart, and would issue an official request after his inauguration.
It is not clear, however, to what extent Ivanov’s approach will diverge from the hard line taken by Gruevski. In the past, Gruevski and outgoing president Branko Crvenkovski were at odds about how to deal with the name dispute.
The inauguration of Ivanov, a 49-year-old law professor, was preceded by controversy about whether an invitation had been issued to Kosovo president Fatmir Sejdiu to attend. Reports on May 12 said that Sejdiu had been invited, an announcement apparently made in response to a threat by some ethnic Albanian parties in Macedonia to boycott the inauguration if Sejdiu was not present.
Heads of state expected to attend the ceremony included Croatian president Stipe Mesic, Serbian president Boris Tadic – whose country refuses to recognise Kosovo as independent – Albanian president Bamir Topi and the president of Montenegro, Filip Vujanovic. It was not clear who would represent Bulgaria, although it was announced that President Georgi Purvanov had been invited.
Ivanov was reported to be headed for Brussels on May 13 for a meeting with EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana, Belgian king Albert II and prime minister Herman van Rompuy.