Gordana Siljanovska-Davkova: Possible presidential candidate that opposes the Prespa Agreement

As part of Macedonia’s political youth at the beginning of pluralism, professor Gordana Siljanovska-Davkova became a member of the Union of Reform Forces, then the Liberal Party, and was a Minister without portfolio in Crvenkovski’s first government… This is her second attempt to enter politics in a more exposed fashion

Author: Ljubomir Kostovski

A lot has been discussed these days about the possibility for UKIM’s Faculty of Law to produce yet another candidate for resident of the presidential villa on Mount Vodno, since the incumbent Gjorgje Ivanov has started packing due to the fact that his tenure is about to come to an end. Namely, not only the location for selecting new head of the highest of functions in the country is identical to the one of Spring of 2009, when Ivanov became VMRO-DPMNE’s candidate with the signatures of his colleagues, but also the method of how this candidacy will be handled might be simply copied. Signatures of colleagues of the potential candidate – constitutional law professor at Iustinianus Primus Faculty of Law, Gordana Siljanovska-Davkova, are being collected. Allegedly, she’s surprised and moved by the candidacy and promised to give this some thought.

Though VMRO-DPMNE’s open competition ended on 1 February, and voting will take place in secret later this month in Struga, it’s clear that Siljanovska-Davkova has been defending the policies of this party long enough, which grants her the favorite role if she decides to run, of course. This time too, same as in Ivanov’s case, the general rule of thumb would be that the potential candidate is not linked to politics (!), therefore the electorate should be presented with the image that she is a qualified person without party background.

This last thing is incorrect, owing to the fact that at the beginning of the transition Siljanovska-Davkova was a member of the first political government of the RM, which was formed right after the brief term of Kljusev’s government of experts. The said political government had members of the then Youth Progressive Party (former Union of Socialist Youth) that merged with Stojan Andov’s Union of Reform Forces of Macedonia and turned into Liberal Party (1990). Later on, Siljanovska-Davkova served as a Minister without portfolio (1992-1994) and was also a member of the body that wrote the Constitution of the RM (Parliament’s 1991 Constitutional Committee).

Back then, the general opinion was that Crvenkovski’s Government had been created by the head of the state – Gligorov – and also that it is “from Skopje”, i.e. children of his political friends (Krste Crvenkovski, Vlado Maleski…) became Ministers, thus it’s safe to say that the daughter in law of the late socialistic official Pavle Davkov belongs among them.

The professor was born in Ohrid in May 1955. Finished elementary and secondary education in Skopje, and enrolled in the Faculty of Law in 1973, where she graduated in 1978. Her first job was assistant to the professor Vladimir Mitkov, teaching International political systems.

In 1993, she earned a PhD from the Ljubljana University. Founded the first Council of European Movement in Macedonia. Between 2012 and 2016, she was also a member of the Venice Commission on Minority Issues. Today, she holds a professorship at the Faculty of Law in Skopje, Institute for Legal and Political Sciences. Her official biography says she has authored more than 200 papers in the area of constitutional law and that she’s a member of plenty of domestic and international institutes and legal associations.

With her political views, she became more vocal at the beginning of the millennium, especially in the moments when she was strongly opposing the new territorial division of Macedonia (2004). Basically, texts leaning toward her potential candidacy depict her as one of the leaders of the Professorial plenum. She took part in the professors’ protest in front of the Parliament’s building, where she made an excellent speech on why the proposed law is wrong, criticized the Ministry of Education for not consulting experts and disagreed with the lack of concept in the development of higher education.

Siljanovska was a guest speaker in a dozen TV shows where she firmly expressed her stance against the new Law on the Use of the Languages, which de facto introduces multilevel bilingualism in Macedonia, including all institutions. She’s one of the front women in the resistance against this piece of legislation, alongside with professor Biljana Vankovska and academician Katica Kjulavkova.

Of course, Siljanovska-Davkova denied the insinuations describing her as “Albanophobist” and she has always used legal arguments, especially when talking about the procedure in which the Law with the European flag was passed.

She deems the Prespa Agreement unacceptable and it “shows that Macedonia is a decaying country submissive to Greece that has allowed insolent meddling in the internal affairs”.

“Those MPs who will raise their hand for the constitutional changes falsify the history and that’s not only an immoral act, but also a series of crimes – said Gordana Siljanovska Davkova in the Otvoreno TV show on Alfa TV”

Without a doubt, VMRO-DPMNE counts on the right-wing voters in Macedonia to back her (if she decides to run) and these are the voters who are considered witnesses and relentless opponents of the bilingualism law and the Prespa Agreement, regardless of the fact that both have been passed and we have started accessing the West.

Due to the fact that she is a professor and a woman, she might attract the neutral voters so the “vote harvest” could be more successful. As a tenant in the presidential villa she would be a sort of a guarantee in Mickoski’s eyes that the position and stance of Ivanov towards the present issues would live on.

Professor’s husband is a lawyer and former private business owner (the one with the duty-free shops that made a real fuss in the middle of the 1990s). They have two children.

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