The leader of the Serbian Democratic Party (PDS) in North Macedonia, 62-year-old Ivan Stoilkovic, is on the list of the commissioner for the formation of the new government, Hristian Mickoski. Stoilkovic has been elected as a member of parliament since 2002 and will be proposed to parliament to take up the post of Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Relations between Ethnic Communities, a portfolio created above the Secretariat for the Implementation of the Ohrid Agreement.
Given the stable majority that Mickoski of VMRO-DPMNE has together with his Albanian partner in the ruling coalition, it seems that Stoilkovic will also get the necessary votes of MPs in Saturday’s session to take over the ministerial presidency.
All would be well if Stoilkovic was not known for his stance against the EU and NATO and against the Ohrid Agreement, the document that ended the conflict between Albanian insurgents and government forces in 2001, which he would have to implement and maintain.
Stoilkovic is also considered a great supporter of Russia. He is a regular guest at all events organized by the Embassy of the Russian Federation in Skopje and the Kremlin. On May 25, 2023, Stoilkovic was in Moscow for his last visit to participate in the Security Forum. Among the guests from the Balkans were the President of Republika Srpska, Milorad Dodik, and the then Director of the Serbian Security and Information Agency and current Minister of Serbia, Aleksandar Vulin. Stoilkovic has been a regular participant in the Security Forum since 2019, which is organized by Nikolai Patrushev, a close confidant of Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chairman of the Russian Security Council. Putin regularly gives video speeches in which he accuses the West of hegemonic tendencies and calls for the creation of alliances for a new world order.
Stoilkovic was very active during the political and security crisis in North Macedonia in the period 2015-2017, which was caused by the publication of wiretaps by the opposition. After the change of the VMRO-DPMNE government, which included the PDS, Stoilkovic launched a campaign in Serbia to draw the attention of the local public to the “repression of the rights of Serbs in North Macedonia”. Documents published by OCCRP in 2018 stated that Stoilkovic had coordinated with the BIA agent in Skopje, Goran Živaljević, to instigate protests to prevent the rotation of power in 2017.
“Hey, I’m waiting for (Lazanski) and I informed him about the column he had to write today in the daily Politika (of Serbia). “We will see the protests, and then when we sit down somewhere tonight, I will call you,” Stoilkovic is quoted as saying to Živaljevic, according to a transcript published by KRIK, Nova TV and OCCRP. During the protests on April 27, 2017, when the crowd of demonstrators entered the parliament and attacked the MPs of the then parliamentary majority, Živaljevic himself was seen in the angry crowd. Stoikovic was in parliament as a deputy and it is assumed that he was not the target of the crowd.
In March 2022, just one month after the start of Russian aggression in Ukraine, a declaration of support for Ukraine was presented to the MPs of North Macedonia. Stoiljkovic voted against the declaration and was one of three MPs who did not support Ukraine. He was joined by LEVICA MPs Dimitar Apasiev and Borislav Krmov.
In a post on Facebook after the vote, Stoilkovic justified his no vote with the words: “After three decades of mounting problems in relations between the US and Russia, Russia has decided to respond to the policy of constructive destruction and thus initiate a new phase in their mutual relations.” Relations. The United States has officially created an unacceptable security situation by permanently violating the international legal order and assuming the role of world hegemon, as well as through its continuous, largely violent policy of NATO expansion – which includes the attempt to include Ukraine in the pact – Russia and the reaction, i.e. the reaction of the Russian Federation, was to be expected due to the previous model of relations with the West imposed over the years.”
On May 5, 2021, Stoilkovic reacted strongly to the expulsion of a Russian diplomat.
“Russia shows great Christian love and intelligence and did not react appropriately to the Macedonian decision, but did so in a very principled and cultural way, as it did not want to put Macedonia in a situation where it would not have a diplomatic representative in Moscow. In this sense, it is a “déjà vu” of the same situation in which Macedonia is trying to flatter the West and the EU and show itself as the most loyal ally on the one hand and to demonstrate strength in front of the local public on the other,” Stoilkovic said in a statement to the Serbian “Sputnik”.
The new government of North Macedonia will have 24 ministries, including the Prime Minister. One of its priorities will be integration into the EU and the continuation of relations with the West. The new president Gordana Siljanovska-Dafkova, a cadre of Mickoski’s party elected as head of state on April 24, declared herself openly pro-Ukrainian during her participation in the Security Forum in Geneva (Switzerland) and signed the declaration in defense of her sovereignty. Meanwhile, Mickoski is said to have assured the US that he would continue to help Ukraine as Prime Minister of a NATO member state. Stoilkovic’s presence in the pro-Western government cabinet is expected to provoke reactions in national and international opinion that could make Skopje an unreliable partner for the West.
