SDSM: Vucic running hybrid campaign in the Balkans; Mickoski and Stoilkovic are his executors

The Social Democratic Union (SDSM) accused Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić of conducting a hybrid campaign across the Balkans and called North Macedonian Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski and Local Self-Government Minister Ivan Stoilkovic mere executors of that strategy.

The party's statement was issued after several social-media posts praised Ratko Mladić — the former Bosnian Serb military commander and convicted war criminal who, the statement says, died in The Hague the day before yesterday — and linked those posts to a broader pro-Serbian influence operation in the region.

SDSM said Mickoski has turned North Macedonia into a hostage of foreign interests and that the government's policies are pushing the country away from the European Union.

Allegations and cited international warnings

In its release the party cited statements from Montenegro and EU officials about so-called hybrid threats and quoted the following: "The EU is hurrying Montenegro to become a member as soon as possible because of the hybrid actions of Aleksandar Vučić. Montenegrin Prime Minister Milojko Spajic published security information that the closing of Montenegro's negotiating chapters with the EU will be followed by coordinated hybrid attacks. Commissioner Marta Kos stated that the European Union must have guarantees that future members will not be turned into internal 'trojan horses'."

SDSM also pointed to calls from some U.S. lawmakers for sanctions on Vučić, and singled out Congressman Joe Wilson's post on X in which he wrote that under Vučić's leadership Serbia is deliberately moving away from the rule of law and closer to, as Wilson put it, enemies of freedom including Russian President Vladimir Putin and China.

The party accused Vučić's administration of preparing tools for election manipulation — introducing electronic voting, issuing passports and registering citizens from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and North Macedonia in Serbia — and said Mickoski is "copy‑pasting" measures used by Vučić and his SNS party.

"As we have been saying for months, Mickoski is doing a 'copy‑paste' of everything that Vučić and the sister party SNS do in Serbia. The media are prepared. Latas, a man of the Serbian services, runs campaigns using the Goebbels method — insults, divisions, constant repetition of the same insulting term to dehumanize the political opponent. Stoilkovic in North Macedonia openly advances the Chinese and Russian agenda. He insults MPs in the Parliament, he glorifies Ratko Mladić," SDSM said.

The party added: "This is a conscious policy of Mickoski and his criminal group to keep North Macedonia away from the EU, in isolation, and closer to authoritarian forces and eastern influences."

SDSM and the ethnic Albanian party DUI reacted sharply after the Facebook page of the Democratic Party of Serbs in Macedonia — chaired by current Local Self-Government Minister Ivan Stoilkovic — published a text that praised Mladić, the statement said.

Photo: press material from the event