A rally in support of Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić has been announced for Saturday in Kumanovo, in front of the Serbian consulate, amid rising political tensions in both Serbia and North Macedonia.
The gathering is being organised by the association “Peace, Harmony, Stability”, which has previously been linked to citizens travelling to Serbia to attend rallies in support of Vučić.
The announcement comes as Serbian students prepare a new protest on May 23 at Slavija Square in Belgrade, presented as part of their campaign “Students Are Winning”.
Kumanovo Mayor Maksim Dimitrievski said he had been informed about the gathering but would not attend, despite receiving an invitation.
“I have an invitation, but I am physically not in Kumanovo and I will not go,” Dimitrievski said.
He added that the municipality had not received any request from the organisers to use public space.
“When a rally is organised in a public area, approval from the municipality is required. No such request has been submitted to us. They are organising a gathering at the consulate, and we cannot interfere there,” Dimitrievski said.
The Interior Ministry said the rally had been reported by the organiser, the association “Peace, Harmony, Stability”.
Ivan Stoilković, North Macedonian Minister for Political System and Inter-Community Relations and leader of the Democratic Party of Serbs, said he would not attend because he was travelling to China.
The opposition Social Democratic Union of Macedonia accused VMRO-DPMNE of organising Macedonian citizens to support Vučić, calling it “shameful interference” in another country’s internal affairs.
SDSM said the event was part of a wider political network linking Belgrade, Budapest and Skopje, accusing the ruling party of serving foreign interests instead of North Macedonia’s.
SDSM international secretary Andrej Žernovski accused the government of selective outrage over foreign political influence.
He said that if a rally were organised in North Macedonia in support of Bulgarian President Rumen Radev, Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski, Foreign Minister Timčo Mucunski and their media network would immediately accuse organisers of foreign interference, threats to sovereignty and national betrayal.
Žernovski said the silence over the pro-Vučić gathering in Kumanovo exposed what he described as the ruling party’s double standards.
“When it suits them, a foreign political rally is ‘brotherly support’. When it does not, the same thing becomes a ‘national catastrophe’,” Žernovski said.
He also questioned the ruling party’s narrative on identity, saying that if 3,504 Bulgarians in North Macedonia are presented as a major threat to the state and nation, then the government should explain why 35,939 Serbs in the country are not treated as a threat to Macedonian identity, language and culture.
Žernovski said the issue was not about protecting national identity, but about political manipulation of citizens’ fears and emotions.
Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski rejected any form of foreign interference, saying the government did not support outside involvement in North Macedonia’s internal affairs and had no intention of interfering in the domestic politics of other countries.
The issue has gained additional sensitivity because a separate rally in support of Albanian students in North Macedonia has been announced for May 26 in Tirana. The students recently protested in Skopje, demanding the right to take the bar exam in Albanian.
The competing claims of foreign interference have turned Kumanovo into the latest political flashpoint in a region where domestic disputes often overlap with broader Balkan rivalries.