North Macedonia's Deputy Prime Minister for Inter-Community Relations and leader of the ethnic Serb party in North Macedonia, Ivan Stoilković, for whom there are documents indicating that he acted as a Serbian agent, is set to receive a new portfolio as part of the government reshuffle carried out by Hristijan Mickoski. We learn this both from Macedonian media reports and from Stoilković's own post of gratitude on Facebook. It appears that he has done enough for the communities in our southwestern neighbor: for the fourth consecutive year, the country has failed to include Bulgarians in the Macedonian Constitution, while at the same time Stoilković has managed to make citizens of North Macedonia celebrate Serbian holidays.
As Deputy Prime Minister, Stoilković is responsible for the Serbian community, which is by no means the largest in the country, yet he has not held a single meeting with ethnic Bulgarians in North Macedonia, despite the problems faced by our compatriots there and despite the fact that, according to official data, around 200,000 people in North Macedonia hold Bulgarian passports.
"The Serbian World" Expands to the Local Level
The reward is a new ministerial position: Stoilković will become Minister of Local Self-Government. This marks another success for the "Serbian World" project — broadly speaking, the doctrine of Serbian influence in the Balkans. In his social media post, Stoilković stated that he would serve as a bridge between the central government of North Macedonia and every municipality in the country.
In other words, the "Serbian World" will penetrate the local level as well, if it has not already done so.
Stoilković Described the Genocide as a "Disneyland"
Before explaining his connections to Serbian intelligence services, it is perhaps worth recalling Stoilković's controversial remarks regarding the Srebrenica genocide. In April 2024, in a Facebook post, he referred to Srebrenica as a "necrophiliac Disneyland."
Screenshot: Facebook/Ivan Stoilkoviћ
This refers to the massacre of 8,300 Bosnian Muslims in July 1995 in the town of Srebrenica and the surrounding areas, which constitutes a war crime and has been classified as genocide by the International Criminal Tribunal in The Hague.
Most of the victims of the massacre were hunted down and summarily executed while attempting to escape through the forests. Their bodies were buried in hastily dug mass graves and later exhumed with bulldozers and scattered among other burial sites in an effort to conceal evidence of the crime.
The Serbian Agent Stoilković and His Role in "Bloody Thursday"
Stoilković played a significant role as early as 2017, when the then-Republic of Macedonia faced serious hybrid threats during several key moments in the country's development. These threats were documented in the annual report of the Intelligence Agency of the Republic of Macedonia, which, according to information published by BGNES, was the agency's first such public report since its establishment.
It was in April 2017 that the so-called "Bloody Thursday" took place, when more than one hundred people were beaten during the storming of the Macedonian Parliament. Among them was then-Prime Minister Zoran Zaev.
During the violence in parliament, Serbian intelligence representative Goran Živaljević took a selfie, which led to tensions between Belgrade and Skopje, as the then-Serbian ambassador, Dušanka Divjak-Tomić, was summoned to the Macedonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
More interestingly, that same year Macedonian counterintelligence uncovered documents detailing the activities of Serbian agents in the Republic of Macedonia. In addition to Živaljević, the documents identified Ivan Stoilković, leader of the Serbian party in Macedonia, and Miroslav Lazanski, a member of parliament from the party of Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić, as Serbian agents.
In 2021, the website zonanews.bg published the documents from Macedonian counterintelligence, which revealed that the relationship between Živaljević and Stoilković predated 2017 by many years. The document states that Stoilković had been tasked with carrying out "planned and organized intelligence activities of interest to Serbia," which Macedonian counterintelligence classified as "anti-constitutional activity" directed against the country's institutional system.
The document also notes that Stoilković maintained contacts with Russian diplomats, which, according to Macedonian counterintelligence, could be viewed within the broader framework of Russian influence in the Balkans.
It should also be recalled that, following the leak of these documents, the authorities in Belgrade unexpectedly withdrew the entire staff of the Serbian embassy in Skopje on August 20, 2017. According to Vučić, the reason was an "intelligence offensive against Serbian institutions."
Ten Years Later, the "Serbian World" Has Become a Reality in North Macedonia
Nearly ten years later, relations between Serbia and North Macedonia are more than excellent, and hardly anyone seems to remember those times of tension. Moreover, the "Serbian World" in our southwestern neighbor has become a reality.
In this regard, the resolution adopted by the European Parliament in June 2026 concerning Skopje's progress toward membership in the European Union is also telling. The resolution expresses concern over the increasingly close ties between North Macedonia and the government of Serbia, which pursues an illiberal political agenda.
he European Parliament has expressed concern about narratives promoted in the region that call into question the sovereignty and territorial integrity of states, including the so-called "Serbian World." One example of this is the commemorations of the Battle of Kumanovo, after which Serbia effectively occupied Vardar Macedonia and carried out repression against the Bulgarian population there. Another example occurred in January this year, when billboards promoting the Days of Saint Sava appeared in our southwestern neighbor. It was none other than Deputy Prime Minister for Inter-Community Relations and ethnic Serb Ivan Stoilković who proudly showcased them on Facebook.
The EU Is Moving Further Away
Unfortunately, Serbian influence is one of the main factors contributing to the European Union becoming increasingly out of reach for North Macedonia. In its latest report on Skopje, the European Parliament noted with regret the lack of progress made by North Macedonia, once again reminding our neighbors to implement their reforms and include Bulgarians in the Macedonian Constitution. Meanwhile, Albania has opened all clusters of its accession negotiation framework, despite the fact that only two years ago Skopje and Tirana were progressing toward the EU side by side. Мицкоски повиши сръбски агент в правителството си: Нов успех за "Сръбски свят", а ЕС все по-далеч
