National emblem of North Macedonia
| Coat of arms of the Republic of Macedonia | |
|---|---|
 |
The coat of arms of the Republic of Macedonia is composed of two curved garlands of sheaves of wheat, tobacco leaves and poppy buds, tied by a ribbon decorated with the embroidery of a traditional Macedonian costume. In the centre of the ovoid frame are depicted a mountain, a lake and a sunrise. At the top of the seal is a five-pointed red star as a symbol of Communism. These devices are said to represent "the richness of our country, our struggle and our freedom". The whole composition and design imitate the pattern of the Coat of arms of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, itself based on the Coat of arms of the Soviet Union, and does not have historical roots in traditional heraldry or Macedonian traditions.
The emblem was adopted on July 27, 1946 by the People's Assembly of the Yugoslav People's Republic of Macedonia (later the Socialist Republic of Macedonia), and is still in use following the Republic's independence from Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in 1991.
The Republic of Macedonia is a predominantly mountainous country, however the mountain does not represent a specific mountain, as in the coat of arms of Slovenia.
Efforts to update the coat of arms have so far failed, due to political and national disputes over possible replacements. A proposal was put forward in 1992 to replace it with a gold lion on a red shield, an old heraldic symbol which has been popular among several generations of reformists and revolutionary movements like the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization in Macedonia since the middle of the 19th century. However, this was rejected on three main grounds:
- several political parties, notably VMRO-DPMNE, already use that emblem as their party symbols
- Macedonia's ethnic Albanians rejected the emblem on the grounds that it only represents Ethnic Macedonians, rather than the nation as a whole
- the state Coat of arms of neighbouring Bulgaria features a similar, but not identical lion
Because of these problems, the Macedonian parties have agreed to continue using the existing coat of arms until a solution is found. For some time the emblem did not appear on the country's passports, however, in 2007 the unchanged emblem from the times of the Yugoslav Socialist Republic of Macedonia was reproduced on the new Macedonian passports, while the parliamentary debate about acceptance of new coat of arms still continues.