Hristijan Mickoski ( mk, Христијан Мицкоски, ) is a Macedonian politician, university professor and president of

VMRO-DPMNE Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization – Democratic Party for Macedonian National Unity ( mk, Внатрешна македонска револуционерна организација – Демократска партија за ...

. In 2016, he became the director of JSC "Power Plants of Macedonia", and in the period 2015—2017 he was energy advisor to the

prime ministers A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is no ...

Nikola Gruevski Nikola Gruevski ( mk, Никола Груевски, pronounced ; hu, Nikola Gruevszki; born 31 August 1970) is a Macedonian politician who served as Prime Minister of Macedonia from 2006 until his resignation, which was caused by the 2016 Mac ...

and Emil Dimitriev. He was elected leader of VMRO-DPMNE at the party's 16th congress in

Valandovo Valandovo ( mk, Валандово ) is a small town in southeastern North Macedonia. The city is the seat of Valandovo Municipality. History Ancient Period Evidence of life can be found beginning in the 10th-7th centuries B.C. There is a settle ...

Biography

Mickoski was born on 29 September 1977 in

Skopje Skopje ( , , ; mk, Скопје ; sq, Shkup) is the capital and largest city of North Macedonia. It is the country's political, cultural, economic, and academic centre. The territory of Skopje has been inhabited since at least 4000 BC; r ...

, then in

SFR Yugoslavia The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, commonly referred to as SFR Yugoslavia or simply as Yugoslavia, was a country in Central and Southeast Europe. It emerged in 1945, following World War II, and lasted until 1992, with the breakup of Yug ...

. He was the president of ELEM, the state-owned electricity producing company. He became a PhD and an

associate professor Associate professor is an academic title with two principal meanings: in the North American system and that of the ''Commonwealth system''. Overview In the ''North American system'', used in the United States and many other countries, it is a ...

at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering at the Ss. Cyril and Methodius University in Skopje.

Party leader

After the resignation of

, Mickoski became the new leader of the

party in December 2017, and thus

leader of the opposition The Leader of the Opposition is a title traditionally held by the leader of the largest political party not in government, typical in countries utilizing the parliamentary system form of government. The leader of the opposition is typically se ...

in the country. Mickoski has stated that he and his party are in favour of EU and NATO but not with ''capitulation''. However the veracity of his pro-EU and pro-NATO orientation has been met with doubt by some political observers. Mickoski has close ties with the Hungarian and Serbian presidents

Orban Orban, also known as Urban ( hu, Orbán; died 1453), was an iron founder and engineer from Brassó, Transylvania, in the Kingdom of Hungary (today Brașov, Romania), who cast large-calibre artillery for the Ottoman siege of Constantinople in 145 ...

and Vučić. He and the party he leads became one of the main participants of the 2022 North Macedonia protests against the French proposal for the start of the negotiation process of North Macedonia and the EU.

Controversies

According to the Makfax news agency, Hristijan Mickoski as a student was a candidate of the Liberal Democratic Party for the presidency of SSUKM. This information was provided by some dissatisfied party members when he was elected party secretary general in July 2017. Some members of VMRO-DPMNE accused that he was not a member of the party until 2010. According to the MEP Andrey Kovachev, Mickoski is an extreme Bulgarophobe. In August 2022, Mickoski vowed to leave politics forever, if Bulgarians were included in the country's constitution, a mandatory requirement included in the negotiating framework with the EU. In September he initiated the holding of a referendum under which the friendship treaty between Bulgaria and North Macedonia would be denounced.

Personal life

Mickoski is married to Roza Mickoska, a

Macedonian language Macedonian (; , , ) is an Eastern South Slavic language. It is part of the Indo-European language family, and is one of the Slavic languages, which are part of a larger Balto-Slavic branch. Spoken as a first language by around two million ...

professor in a gymnasium.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mickoski, Hristijan Academic staff of the Ss. Cyril and Methodius University of Skopje VMRO-DPMNE politicians Living people Macedonian engineers Macedonian nationalists 1977 births