site.bta Democratic Union for Integration Deputy Chair: "Future Deputy PM Is Putinist"

"For the first time since 2001, the Ohrid Treaty is being overseen by a Serb with pro-Putin beliefs! The change has just begun!," Democratic Union for Integration (DUI) Deputy Chair Arbër Ademi posted on Facebook Monday, reacting to the nomination of the Chair of the Democratic Party of Serbs in Macedonia, Ivan Stoilković, as deputy prime minister in charge of inter-community relations.

The post came after VMRO-DPMNE leader Hristijan Mickoski officially announced the ministerial nominations of the coalition led by his party on Sunday, following a meeting of the party's Executive and Central Committees.

DUI’s Artan Grubi was deputy prime minister in charge of inter-community relations in the previous cabinet in which DUI coalesced with the Social Democratic Union of Macedonia. During the election campaign, VMRO-DPMNE frequently used Grubi's name to criticize DUI.

VMRO-DPMNE has accused Grubi of corruption, particularly regarding the construction of sections of Corridors VIII and X-D, for which he was responsible. A contract for this project was signed with a Bechtel and Enka consortium. As part of VMRO-DPMNE, Stoilković joined Mickoski to protest against the so-called "French proposal" last summer.

The reference is to the so-called "EU French Presidency proposal", aimed at addressing a number of moot points between Sofia and Skopje over language, history and the rights of ethnic Bulgarians in North Macedonia as a precondition for the launch of EU accession negotiations. Among other things, the proposal required the country to commit to amending its Constitution recognizing a Bulgarian minority and to abandon anti-Bulgarian hate speech as a precondition for the start of accession negotiations.