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Ljubčo Georgievski (, ; ; born 17 January 1966) is a Macedonian politician and writer who served as the only Vice President of Macedonia from January to October 1991 and as the Prime Minister of Macedonia from 1998 to 2002. He advocated for the country's independence. Georgievski was one of the founders of the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization - Democratic Party for Macedonian National Unity (VMRO-DPMNE) and was the first party president from 1990 to 2003. However, he split from the party and established VMRO-NP in 2004. He acquired Bulgarian citizenship in 2006.


Life

Ljubčo Georgievski was born on 17 January 1966 in Štip, SR Macedonia, SFR Yugoslavia, where he had primary and secondary education. In 1988, Georgievski graduated from the Faculty of Philology of the Ss. Cyril and Methodius University of Skopje, specializing in comparative literature. In his twenties, he promoted
anti-communism Anti-communism is Political movement, political and Ideology, ideological opposition to communism, communist beliefs, groups, and individuals. Organized anti-communism developed after the 1917 October Revolution in Russia, and it reached global ...
and advocated for Macedonian independence. He was a member of Movement for All-Macedonian Action (MAAK) and he said in the 2012 TV documentary "Twenty years of independence" () that he participated in the founding meeting of the party where he stated that MAAK has to be a movement for a
confederation A confederation (also known as a confederacy or league) is a political union of sovereign states united for purposes of common action. Usually created by a treaty, confederations of states tend to be established for dealing with critical issu ...
. In the circles of the party he met with Boris Zmejkovski and
Dragan Bogdanovski Dragan Bogdanovski (; 18 September 1929 – 31 May 1998) was a Macedonian émigré, activist and a founder of VMRO-DPMNE. Life Dragan Bogdanovski was born on 18 September 1929 in Klečevce, Kumamovo region, Kingdom of Yugoslavia. He graduated ...
. After he left the party he intended to create a new political movement. Georgievski, Bogdanovski, Zmejkovski, and a few other activists agreed to make a party for independent Macedonia. The
Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization – Democratic Party for Macedonian National Unity The Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization – Democratic Party for Macedonian National Unity (), abbreviated as VMRO-DPMNE (), is a Conservatism, conservative and the main Centre-right politics, centre-right to Right-wing politics, rig ...
was founded on 17 June 1990 in SR Macedonia. Georgievski was elected as the party's first president in the constituent assembly. In the first multi-party elections in 1990 Georgievski with his party had won the biggest number of seats in the Macedonian Assembly. Refusing to make a coalition with the ethnic Albanian parties Georgievski had failed to make a government and a non-partisan government came to power. After a new constitution was adopted in November 1990 he was elected as Vice President by the Assembly of the Republic of Macedonia on 27 January 1991. Georgievski resigned from the position in October 1991. He was a member of parliament from 1992 to 1994. In 1998 Georgievski won the parliamentary elections and became Prime Minister of Macedonia with a coalition government with the Democratic Alternative party and the Democratic Party of Albanians. He contributed to the improvement of Macedonia–Bulgaria relations. On 22 February 1999, he signed an agreement with Bulgarian prime minister Ivan Kostov to normalize relations. During this period, he was accused by the opposition of implementing pro-Bulgarian policies. In the 1990s, Macedonian historians, such as Ivan Katardžiev and Krste Bitovski, also accused him and his party of pro-Bulgarian sentiments due to the party's opposition to the pro-Yugoslav interpretation of Macedonian history. He led the republic during the Macedonian insurgency in 2001, as well as a government of national unity (which was formed under international mediation). Georgievski supported a military solution for the conflict. He was among the people who signed the Ohrid Agreement on 13 August, which ended the conflict. In the same year, in
Luxembourg Luxembourg, officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, is a landlocked country in Western Europe. It is bordered by Belgium to the west and north, Germany to the east, and France on the south. Its capital and most populous city, Luxembour ...
, Georgievski signed the EU-backed Stabilization and Association Agreement. The International Crisis Group published two reports called ''Finance Peace in Macedonia, Not Corruption'' and ''Macedonia's Public Secret: How Corruption Drags the Country Down'' in September 2002 regarding corruption during his rule, before the elections. Georgievski resigned from the party's leadership on 24 May 2003 after he lost the 2002 elections and was succeeded the next day by the former finance minister in his government, Nikola Gruevski. In 2004, he left the party and was followed by his supporters, establishing the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization – People's Party (VMRO-NP) on 4 July. He initially was the honorary chairman of VMRO-NP before becoming its president on 26 February 2012. In 2006 Georgievski acquired Bulgarian citizenship, declaring Bulgarian descent.


Literary works

He is the author of a poetry collection ''Apocalypse'' (), verse novel ''City'' () and a collection of short stories ''Direct Interventions with Short Stories into the Anatomic Structure of History'' (). In 2007, Georgievski published his book ''Facing the Truth'' () in Bulgaria. In the book, he urges Macedonians to accept their Bulgarian heritage. In 2012, Georgievski published his autobiographical book ''It is me'' (). There he revealed a range of new things about the unknown history of the country, including the fact that he together with his Serbian counterpart Zoran Đinđić, discussed the exchange of territories between Macedonia,
Albania Albania ( ; or ), officially the Republic of Albania (), is a country in Southeast Europe. It is located in the Balkans, on the Adriatic Sea, Adriatic and Ionian Seas within the Mediterranean Sea, and shares land borders with Montenegro to ...
and
Kosovo Kosovo, officially the Republic of Kosovo, is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe with International recognition of Kosovo, partial diplomatic recognition. It is bordered by Albania to the southwest, Montenegro to the west, Serbia to the ...
. The book confirms that in 1999 he was summoned to the
White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest (Washington, D.C.), NW in Washington, D.C., it has served as the residence of every U.S. president ...
, where former U.S. Secretary of State
Madeleine Albright Madeleine Jana Korbel Albright (born Marie Jana Körbelová, later Korbelová; May 15, 1937 – March 23, 2022) was an American diplomat and political science, political scientist who served as the 64th United States Secretary of State, United S ...
, sought permission from Macedonia ground forces of
NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO ; , OTAN), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental Transnationalism, transnational military alliance of 32 Member states of NATO, member s ...
to attack
Serbia , image_flag = Flag of Serbia.svg , national_motto = , image_coat = Coat of arms of Serbia.svg , national_anthem = () , image_map = , map_caption = Location of Serbia (gree ...
from the territory of the country. Among other things, he wrote that he had spent fifteen minutes talking to former Serbian and Yugoslav President
Slobodan Milošević Slobodan Milošević ( sr-Cyrl, Слободан Милошевић, ; 20 August 1941 – 11 March 2006) was a Yugoslav and Serbian politician who was the President of Serbia between 1989 and 1997 and President of the Federal Republic of Yugos ...
while he was visiting former Macedonian Interior Minister Ljube Boškoski in the Scheveningen prison. Regarding the state-political situation of the country, Georgievski concluded that "the Macedonians are the biggest counterfeiters of the Balkan history".


Personal life and views

Georgievski is married and has a son. According to him in 2012, the present development of the VMRO-DPMNE was his personal failure and he claimed that it was a fake party without any ideology. In
North Macedonia North Macedonia, officially the Republic of North Macedonia, is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe. It shares land borders with Greece to the south, Albania to the west, Bulgaria to the east, Kosovo to the northwest and Serbia to the n ...
, Georgievski has a reputation as a Bulgarophile but has also self-identified as one. It is a stigma in the country. On 27 February 2021, he made a five-point proposal on Facebook to improve North Macedonia–Bulgaria relations, which was criticized by VMRO-DPMNE and Pavle Trajanov from the party Democratic Alliance. He opined that Bulgarian and Macedonian people have a common history, but the process of separation of the Macedonians cannot be limited to 1944. It lasted at least 130-140 years, starting with linguistic separatism, followed by a political one and finally ended with national separation. In a TV show in 2021, he stated that he could not identify as anything other than as a Macedonian. He claimed that except Macedonian and Bulgarian, he also has a third citizenship but did not reveal it. Per him, the Macedonian state is the subject of heavy Serbianization.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Georgievski, Ljubco 1966 births Living people People from Štip Prime ministers of North Macedonia Macedonian people of Bulgarian descent VMRO – People's Party politicians VMRO-DPMNE politicians Ss. Cyril and Methodius University of Skopje alumni Macedonian writers