Silence from Kitanović as controversy over Ratko Mladić divides Macedonian politics

Dalibor Kitanović, director of the Agency for the Realisation of the Rights of Communities, has remained silent for a second day about photographs that critics say glorify Ratko Mladić. He has not said whether he will retract his comments about Mladić or resign from his post in the Government of North Macedonia.

The Facebook page of the Democratic Party of Serbs in Macedonia has also published no new comment since the government requested on Friday that officials who publicly supported Mladić either withdraw their statements or step down.

Political tensions between the ruling majority and the opposition continued, with SDSM publicly pressing Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski to clarify his stance toward two government figures: Deputy Prime Minister Ivan Stoilković and Agency director Dalibor Kitanović. Keti Shterjova of SDSM said: "If Mickoski does not agree with Stoilković and Kitanović, then he should condemn their statements and dismiss them. This is part of a broader agenda, a Vučić scenario that Mickoski is implementing and which SDSM has warned about. Creating tensions, divisions among citizens, ethnic provocations and divisions, Operation 'Talog'."

VMRO-DPMNE rejected SDSM's accusations, accusing the party of hypocrisy and pointing to past cases it says demonstrate alleged Serbian-service influence in North Macedonia. The party also attacked SDSM leadership over a cancelled concert and accused critics of exaggerating the controversy around the singer who once performed for Mladić's forces.

The dispute has spread across ethnic political lines. DUI accused the VLEN coalition of avoiding a direct public rebuke of Deputy Prime Minister Ivan Stoilković and underlined that EU institutions have condemned the glorification of the convicted war criminal Ratko Mladić as contrary to European values. DUI added that Stoilković and his political circle continue to glorify and relativise the greatest perpetrators of crimes in Europe after World War II.

Smaller parties also reacted. ZNAM said that the official responsible for public statements must take personal and institutional responsibility and rejected claims it stayed silent according to a timetable set by the opposition. LDP went further, calling on the government not only to demand that Kitanović retract his stance but to remove him immediately and initiate criminal proceedings. The reactions follow the publication on social media of photographs of Kitanović and the Democratic Party of Serbs alongside images of Ratko Mladić, which critics say celebrate his person and deeds.

Photo: press material from the event