Written by: MILA STAMENOVA BURNS and ZHARKO TRAJANOSKI

This investigative story by Mila Stamenova Burns and Zharko Trajanoski was produced and published by the Institute for Media and Analytics (IMA) as part of Western Balkans Anti-Disinformation Hub project. It has been republished here with permission.

Introduction: The Anti-Gender Movement on the Rise with New Actors (2023-2025)

After the MOC-OA protest against “gender ideology,” anti-gender mobilization consolidated into a wider network of actors campaigning against the Law on Gender Equality and LGBTI+ rights. The Coalition for Child Protection (CCP) and “Eleusa Foundation” continued screenings of ‘What Is a Woman?’ as an allegedly “educational” tool, aiming to expand their anti-gender mobilisation efforts.^[1] A research on the film’s reception shows it “reaffirms gender stereotypes and uses one-sided arguments (Walsh’s), trivializing the expertise of professionals, including doctors, who work for and with transgender people, which basically aims to dehumanize and demonize transgender people and their supporters.”.^[2]  The content analysis of the online debate around the film reveals an alarming level of hate speech targeting LGBTI+ population.[3]

In September 2023, “Parents’ Front” (Strumica) emerged as a new national-facing actor, using “child protection” framing, petitions, and local mobilization against “gender ideology” in schools and municipal documents.^[4] Anti-gender efforts of “Parents Front” culminated in a joint public activity with the CCP, a conference against “anti-sex movements” and “gender ideology.^[5]

2.1. Defocusing from the ‘Palevski case’

Anti-gender mobilisation efforts stalled following the murder of a 14 years old child in November 2023, when the prime suspect – the leader of the pro-Russian political Party “Desna” Ljupcho Palevski – escaped in Turkey. Palevski was a regular guest on the “Rodina Makedonija” podcast and an online influencer disseminating pro-Russian narratives targeting the West and the “Atlantists (satanists)”. As journalist Miroslava Simonovska explained, Ljupcho Palevski was orbiting around the creators of the movement for protection of children, now attempting to distance themselves from him.^[6]  Researcher Milenkovska notes that anti-gender leaders responded to the Palevski scandal not with self-reflection but with calculated erasure as well as defocusing strategies.

“When they were called on to show their real connection with a child murderer, again there was ignoring of the truth—erasing all evidence that they had any joint appearances,” she recalls. “That was a period in which you can see that they were very quiet. On the contrary, they tried to focus on other issues—create a defocus—instead of focusing on why people are asking: why do you hang out with murderers, give them support, laugh alongside them, while that man is planning murder…?” [7]

Nevertheless, in 2024, Parents’ Front continued its campaign of anti-gender disinformation, popularizing Bishop Jakov Stobiski’s smear theses against “woke” culture, against “extremist feminism,” against “gender theory as one of the main factors of enslavement,” ^[8] and about the alleged connection between “gender ideology” and “a kind of liberalization of paedophilia at the global level.”^[9

The activities of Parents’ Front, the CCP and Bishop Jakov were critically analysed in an investigative journalistic story,^[10] which also commented on Bishop Jakov Stobiski’s anti-gender, demonizing positions (“In this ideology, in these laws, I see the face of the devil…”). The portal ‘Tiveriopol’ republished the piece under the headline “Attempt to Disqualify Bishop Jakov, Associations, etc. Who Are Against Gender Ideology,” with rhetoric against “satanists,”^[11] describing Jakov as “enemy no. 1 of the satanist ‘demoNOcratic processes.’”.^[12]

2.2 Anti‑gender Mobilization in the Context of 2024 Elections and the Political Power Change

The 2024 Parliamentary and Presidential Elections offered a new opportunity to weaponize anti‑gender narratives. In the pre‑election period both CCP and Parents’ Front launched satanizing campaigns against the then prime minister,^[13] ministers and ruling‑party candidates, branding them as promoters of “gender ideology.” In parallel, they amplified the positions of opposition candidates—especially from VMRO‑DPMNE—who explicitly opposed “gender policies”.^[14] This strategy is fully in line with regional trends. Coalition MARGINS’ study notes that in anti‑gender narratives the demonization of “gender”—reduced to the caricatural label “gender ideology”—serves to fuel social polarization and delegitimize liberal or progressive actors, including civil society organizations.^[15]  Angel Dimitrievski’s regional overview for GMF similarly concludes that the Law on Gender Equality in North Macedonia remains blocked primarily because anti‑gender actors have continuously demonized it as an existential threat, rather than debating its actual provisions.^[16]

The 2024 change of government and the election of President Gordana Siljanovska Davkova did not pacify anti‑gender actors. On the contrary, CCP and Parents’ Front turned their fire on the new authorities whenever they perceived a deviation from their maximalist agenda. Parents’ Front publicly “asked” the new President what she “really means” by “promoting gender equality,”^[17] while CCP sent an open letter accusing her of “narrow cooperation with Soros LGBTI+ organizations,” support for Skopje Pride and an “open commitment to promoting ‘gender equality’”—reminding her that she was elected by “the majority of the people” and should “serve them,” not “gender ideologues.”^[18]

The rhetoric quickly escalated into open demonology. In a September 2024 post titled “Progressive Madness for Thirty Silver Coins,” Parents’ Front declared: “Macedonia, the Macedonian people and our children will not be slaves of the satanists! P.S. Whoever plants pumpkins with the devil and his servants, they will be smashed on his own head.”^[19] The biblical allusions and threats of divine punishment mirror the Kremlin‑aligned use of “satanism” as a master frame against the West and its supposed “gender ideology.” In addition, the targeting and prosecution of anyone who speaks of or supports gender equality, as one of their primary operating strategies has persisted in their narratives.^[20]

“These calls for ‘harsh’ reactions from numerous conservative actors in our society inevitably had a major impact on the wider public, as well as on their followers. As a result, the staff of ‘Equalis’ were subjected to such levels of hate speech and incitement to violence that they even received death threats, and for a certain period they did not dare to leave their homes for fear for their personal safety.”^[21]

At the same time, mainstream right‑wing actors instrumentalized the debate to reposition themselves. VMRO‑DPMNE MP Antonio Miloshoski publicly announced that his family would join the 2023 church protest against the Law on Gender Equality, framing the law as an attempt to “undermine family values,” “manipulate children through education,” and “relativize the equality of the sexes (woman & man) behind the façade of controversial ‘gender identity’.”^[22] In a later parliamentary debate, he celebrated the substitution of “gender equality” with “equality between women and men” in the Law on Primary Education as a victory over “gender ideology,” echoing the binary slogan “equality between men and women – yes; gender identity and manipulations – no.”^[23]

Conservative media and commentators added their own layers to the demonizing narrative. Skopje city council president and VMRO‑DPMNE executive committee member Trajko Slaveski applauded North Macedonia’s non‑participation in Eurovision 2024 by exclaiming “This is not my Europe!” and labelling the contest a spectacle of “satanist messages and perversions” that must “never be repeated.”^[24]

In an echo chamber shaped by Kremlin war propaganda, even international events such as the Paris Olympic Games were framed as “satanist” rituals, with Russian and pro‑Russian outlets trying to turn “satanism” into the defining epithet for the Olympics and for “the West” as a whole. Attacks of the Paris Olympics with the terms “Satanism” and “Satanic”, as part of Putin’s hostile propaganda against the West,[25] mushroomed on social media networks controlled by pro-Russian actors from North Macedonia. Following the orchestrated anti-gender attacks on the opening ceremony of the Olympics in Paris as well as the orchestrated hate speech attacks on two female boxers, a “new discipline” in the media and social networks emerged – “boxing” with anti-gender disinformation.[26]

2.3.  A boost from Trump’s anti-woke agenda to accelerate the anti-gender movement

In 2025, the country’s anti-gender movement in North Macedonia did not merely persist—it appears to have strengthened, professionalized, networked and moved from pressure groups into decision-making spaces. This phenomenon is mainly tied to the international socio-political climate, but also to the domestic political atmosphere. As one of our interviewees, Milenkovska reflects:

“How do we go from random anti-vaxxer Facebook groups to the moment where anti-gender actors are sitting at the same table, right now, with the people who make decisions in our society?! … it is the result of how well those groups are funded… and have a good strategy for how exactly to mobilize people.” [27]

All interviewees link the anti-gender movement escalation to a broader international climate in which anti-gender and “anti-woke” politics went mainstream again.^[28] The flow of Trump’s anti-gender political decisions have been summarized in one of his key political slogans – “Our country will be woke no longer”.^[29]

Accordingly, the domestic anti-gender actors have adopted and utilized the American anti-woke and anti-gender narratives, as our interviewee, former MP and renowned gender equality activist, Sanela Shkrijelj explains:
“… after the Trump situation, things completely changed, because everything we tried to qualify as an erosion of democratic values is now normalized and acceptable. Now it’s hard to explain even to people who say, ‘Look, the biggest, most developed democracy in the world, the President of the United States, confirms that they were right.’ So, absolutely it’s a huge harmful influence”. [30]

The celebration of Trump’s anti-gender politics and narratives have been widely adopted by the anti-gender organizations in North Macedonia. “Parents’ Front“ has been posting news about Trump’s politics and executive orders concerning the anti-woke and anti-gender narratives, translating it into the Macedonian context.^[31] Another Parents’ Front post on Charlie Kirk’s assassination, adapts Trump’s post-Kirk anti-woke and anti-gender narrative to the Macedonian context.[32]

2.4. Moms for America and Moms for Macedonia Create a Global Network

A clearer example of transnational circulation moving from rhetoric into organized structure is the 2025 rollout of “Mothers for Macedonia”.^[33] The launch was not a local standalone initiative. It was fronted by Kimberly Fletcher, the U.S. founder and president of Moms for America, alongside Rachel Scott and Macedonian activist Ana Dukoska, who are listed in both MIA reporting and Moms for America’s own press materials as co‑founders of the global “Moms for Freedom” network. In the same set of announcements, Moms for America stated that the network’s “official launch meeting” was held in Skopje on 26 September 2025 before the Ohrid public event, and that the global press rollout continued in Washington, D.C. in early October.^[34] The sequencing itself — Skopje meeting, Ohrid chapter launch, then U.S. press conference — functions as a concrete organizational bridge between U.S. conservative “parental rights” actors and their new Macedonian sister‑structure.

Ana Dukoska’s role provides the domestic hinge in this cross‑border chain. Public profiles identify her as the founder of the Macedonian “Јас сум жена / I Am Woman” platform and organizer of the Global Women Leadership Conference in Skopje since 2022, where the Moms for Freedom initiative was presented to an international audience in autumn 2025.^[35] Through Dukoska, an existing local women’s network becomes the hosting and legitimizing venue for a U.S.‑initiated global project, illustrating how international narrative toolkits arrive in North Macedonia not only through online content, but through named partners, co‑founding arrangements, and jointly staged events.

The way “I am woman” is positioning itself to lobby through state institutions is visible in its direct access to the highest political office: on 22 July 2025, President Gordana Siljanovska-Davkova formally received Ana Dukoska as head of the association. The President’s office not only hosted the meeting but publicly praised the association’s engagement in stimulating women’s activity “in all spheres… including politics,” effectively granting institutional legitimacy to the group and its conference agenda. In investigative terms, this indicates a deliberate strategy to translate the movement’s “pro-motherhood/values” framing into formal policy-adjacent space by cultivating visibility and endorsement inside state institutions.^[36]

Ideologically, Moms for Freedom World draws directly on the proven U.S. “parental rights” playbook. Moms for America defines itself around defending “truth, family, freedom” and has long campaigned on education as a frontline arena, including through a dedicated “Parental Rights Guide” that frames schools, curricula, and gender/sexuality education as spaces needing organized maternal oversight.^[37] The Ohrid speeches echoed this grammar: urging earlier motherhood, emphasizing a mother‑father family model, and positioning mothers as the decisive civic force to protect children and influence policy. In other words, the “pro‑motherhood” brand operates as a soft‑presentation entry point for a harder political agenda familiar from U.S. culture‑war organizing, now re‑embedded in a Macedonian setting through an explicitly transnational structure. Prior to the official launch, an interview published by MIA with Iskra Koroveshovska, journalist and co-founder of “I am woman,” announced the 4th Global Women’s Leadership Conference in Skopje (26–28 September 2025) and revealed that U.S. guests would attend at the organization’s invitation, signalling an emerging cross-border alignment around policy-active motherhood narratives. ^[38]

This case supplies a tangible network map: a U.S. conservative organization (Moms for America) co‑creates a global mother‑mobilization network, selects Skopje/Ohrid for its inaugural European‑Balkan launch, and does so in partnership with a local activist platform that already works in public leadership and policy spaces. The movement’s Macedonian chapter therefore reflects not just narrative borrowing from abroad, but the establishment of a formal cross‑border alliance designed to extend “parental rights” ‑style campaigning into the region’s education and gender policy debates.

As our interviewee Shkrijelj concludes on the Mothers for Macedonia’s launch:

“This conference in my view is very dangerous because it’s led by women and the narrative is such that it looks like it supports women. In the background, there is an association of women coming from the business sector. That’s why I say it’s a very dangerous combination, because apparently it works on, I don’t know, economic empowerment… But when you look at the background—it’s… I think that’s how it is in America and in many other countries—these are already tested tactics. That’s how they enter everywhere.” [39]

In addition, feminist editor Kalia Dimitrova emphasizes how quickly this constellation shifted “from something very marginal… a Facebook phenomenon of people with very extreme and crazy views” into “the level of public policy.” Today, she argues, anti-gender actors “wear many hats” and “have their tentacles in other fields too,” so that even entrepreneurs and cultural workers are more likely to gravitate toward seemingly neutral “business women” initiatives that “slip in conservatism under the rug” than to openly support feminist or queer-inclusive platforms.” [40]

2.5. Entering Institutions and changing state policies

Beside the international and regional political anti-gender narratives that have assisted the Macedonian anti-gender movement in gaining momentum, the domestic political climate has also aligned well with the coming of VMRO-DPMNE in power in 2024, when the anti-gender organizations successfully lobbied with this new government to make amendments to the Law on Primary Education, removing the term “gender equality,” replacing it with the words “equal opportunities”. The article on protection from discrimination was changed in a way that removes the discriminatory grounds of gender, sexual orientation, and gender identity. As our interviewee Bozhinovska concludes:

“This year, for the first time, we have anti-gender movements that are close to MPs from the ruling structure… where gender equality, sexual and reproductive health, and the basics of anti-discrimination were completely erased.”[41]

Certainly, the alignment of the anti-gender organizations with the national and local authorities has intensified, as evident from the latest meetings of Parent’s Front with the new mayor of Strumica and their evident support for him as a candidate in the mayoral race, as opposed to their open criticism towards SDSM as an opponent and key player in pushing the “gender ideology” in our country. As our interviewee Mile Boshnjakovski explains the link between the anti-gender movement and the current political climate dominated by conservative, right-wing politics

“The conservative political structures give political legitimacy to these anti‑gender narratives and provide a kind of legitimacy to discrimination against the LGBTI+ community and against women’s rights… They do it through so‑called—famous word—proxy elements. These are civic organizations, religious associations, in some cases even funds and think tanks that are under their influence… This is classical populism: they’re chasing votes; the easiest is to latch onto those conservative layers of society.”[42]

Across Parent’s Front Facebook posts, there is evident transition from street-level pressure to policy-adjacent partnership. Parents’ Front celebrates the April 2025 parliamentary amendments to the Law on Primary Education and related textbook laws as a decisive purge of “gender ideology”. They were thanking MPs “with deeds” for defending children and explicitly highlighting VMRO-DPMNE figures Antonio Miloshoski and Petar Markov as champions of “parental rights,” while pledging electoral support for any political concept that shares the group’s “values and commitments.” This is a classic lobbying signal: policy change is framed as a victory of the movement’s agenda inside the legislature, and gratitude is coupled with a promise of future political backing.^[43] The group’s claim aligns with documented outcomes of the amendments, which removed “gender equality” language and deleted “gender, gender identity, and sexual orientation” as protected grounds in primary education.^[44]

Later on, Parents’ Front uses the local elections to extend this legislative alignment into local state structures through open partnership with VMRO-DPMNE’s new Strumica leadership. Before the election, Parents’ Front publicly staged “working meetings” with mayoral candidate Petar Jankov in the presence of senior party officials[45], describing a shared mission to protect children from “neoliberal ideologies,” prevent schools from becoming sites of “ideological indoctrination,” and to build an “institutionalized cooperation” between the organization and municipal government^[46]. After Jankov’s victory, the group congratulated him as a moral alternative to the “time behind us” allegedly marked by “external influences” that sacrificed “holy values,” and predicts that their “initiative talks” will translate into concrete joint actions^[47] The day he takes office, they announce they were the first organization he officially met, presenting this as an “encouraging step toward partnership and promotion of shared values,” and framing the municipality as a co-guardian of family primacy and children as top policy priority^[48] The effects of this anti-gender positioning of the municipality were explained by a local source from the NGO sector in Strumica:
“Already under the influence of anti-gender actors and the Church, the municipality doesn’t communicate with civic organizations that have a different position on this issue. Literally there’s a ring; there is no two-way communication. We are ignored.” [49]

Finally, a post from Parents’ Front makes the partisan logic explicit: SDSM and Health Education and Research Association (HERA) are cast as a corrupt “left” axis that “orders and writes laws,” pushes “gender ideology,” and undermines “traditional family values,” with the post invoking church-led protests and labeling opponents “Sorosoidni.”^[50] The function of this frame is twofold: it delegitimizes prior gender-equality policy as foreign-driven imposition, and it justifies the movement’s present closeness to VMRO-DPMNE as a defensive, values-based correction. Civil-society and equality-body reactions to the same amendments confirm that the backlash Parents’ Front celebrates is understood by rights watchdogs as a regression that re-opens space for discrimination—precisely the policy terrain the movement now claims a seat within.^[51]

In sum, these posts provide primary evidence that Parents’ Front is no longer working only as an oppositional pressure group: it publicly rewards legislative allies, endorses VMRO-DPMNE candidates, institutionalizes cooperation with local authorities, and sustains a moral-panic narrative against “left” and foreign-backed NGOs—exactly how anti-gender actors enter institutions and reshape state policy.

2.6. The Coalition for Child Protection as a watchdog against “traitors”

In 2025 the CCP also radicalised its tone, turning its “child-protection” platform into a permanent campaign against the government and EU integration. In a February 2025 statement, the CCP accuses VMRO-DPMNE of “stabbing in the back” all voters for whom “family and children come first,” claiming that the party secretly continues “the work started by SDSM” by integrating “gender ideology” into education together with “Soros and USAID organisations.”^[52]

Later that year, a long Facebook manifesto warns of “dark days for education,” alleging that Minister Vesna Janevska and VMRO-DPMNE are drafting the 2026–2032 Education Strategy with the EU, UNICEF, the World Bank and LGBTI+ NGOs in order to create an education system that “actively promotes gender and transgender equality.”^[53] The CCP translates this into apocalyptic language: children, they argue, will be taught to “forget the most basic facts” and accept that “a man can become a woman, a woman can become a man or even a cat or dog.”

At the same time, CCP pointed out that EU accession inevitably requires full acceptance of “gender ideology and transgender identities in all segments of society,” reading EU Parliament resolutions, the Istanbul Convention and the X v. North Macedonia judgment as proof that LGBTI+ rights are a “non-negotiable” condition. The started to portray Prime Minister Mickoski and VMRO-DPMNE as gradually capitulating to “all LGBTI+ demands” despite pre-election promises that “not even the letter ‘g’ of gender” would be heard. This narrative stands in open tension with other institutional messages, such as the National Erasmus+ Agency’s public insistence that “gender ideology” will not appear in national priorities while sex equality remains aligned with EU fundamental values.^[54]

Meanwhile, CCP’s rhetoric increasingly targets specific individuals and organisations. In the same “Dark days for education” post they threaten to “publicly expose” any teacher who implements gender- and trans-sensitive policies, promising to label them “bad teachers” regardless of professional merits and framing such denunciation as a moral duty to protect children from “brainwashing.” Their visual propaganda amplifies this logic: a widely shared meme places party leader Mickoski and minister Janevska alongside drag performers under the caption “Children will learn that a man can give birth and a woman can have a penis,” visually fusing government, EU-aligned education reforms and queer bodies into a single object of ridicule and fear.

Photo from Facebook Post of the Coalition for Child Protection, 30.11.2025

The CCP uses the same confrontational style in its written response to our research questions, where instead of engaging with the questionnaire they begin by delegitimising the “so-called Institute for Media and Analytics IMA” as a project of “colour-revolution” activists. CCP accused IMA and other NGOs of being paid agents of foreign donors and an LGBTI+ lobby that allegedly censors dissent, and describe trans people as “confused about their sex” suffering from mental disorder who need therapy rather than rights. In other words, CCP positions itself as a non-partisan voice of “the majority of parents” while systematically vilifying teachers, journalists, human-rights organisations and pro-EU politicians as traitors and threats to children, extending the anti-gender campaign from abstract “ideology” to personalised smear and intimidation.

2.7. Conclusion: Demonization, satanization and shrinking civic space

What we see in North Macedonia corresponds closely to the broader European and transnational pattern described by Smrdelj and Kuhar: biological essentialism, a rigid hierarchy of “natural” gender roles, the divisive demonization of perceived enemies (feminists, LGBT+ movements, political elites) and the tactical appropriation of human‑rights language. These messages are amplified through protests, social media, referendums and constant role‑reversal, where anti‑gender actors pose as “victims” resisting “totalitarian gender ideology”.^[55]

The main effects of the anti-gender propaganda with disinformation and demonization, employed as weapons in the information war against the West and the EU, was discreditation of pro-western political actors and shrinking of the civic space in North Macedonia.^[56] As a result, terms like “gender ideology,” “satanist” and “Nazi” are now routinely used to describe women leaders, activists and LGBTI+ supporters.^[57]

Dimitrova underlines that what has changed in recent years is not only the volume but the reach of anti-gender narratives.

“It’s very scary—that’s the scariest part,” she says; anti-gender actors now “have their tentacles in other fields too… they are literally at every level—like when I hear my mother asking me questions that clearly came from some anti-gender actor.” Their success, she notes, lies in entering everyday spaces such as parents’ Viber groups and “operating in very clever, informal ways—posing as concerned parents and infiltrating these views into neutral spaces where many people are.”[58]

The national and local media often amplifies these narratives rather than challenging them, contributing directly to dehumanization and demonisation of women and LGBTIQ+ and anti-gender hate speech. ^[59] Besides the evident correlation of local anti-gender narratives with anti-gender narratives weaponized by Kremlin and by the anti-woke movement in USA, the anti-gender movement in North Macedonia is not exclusively an imported product. Kalia Dimitrova cautions against viewing anti-gender politics as purely “imported.”, arguing that “What isn’t ‘imported’ is that the majority already holds traditional conservative political values”.[60]

The effects of anti-gender propaganda with disinformation and demonizing narratives are not merely discursive. As the analysis by IMA on discrimination and hate speech towards LGBTI+ people shows, campaigns led by CCP, Parents’ Front and allied actors have produced a climate in which human rights defenders face direct threats.^[61]

Taken together, the 2023–2025 period shows that the anti-gender movement has moved beyond marginal efforts for creating moral panic into a more durable political infrastructure: now it borrows narrative architecture, not only from Russian propaganda against the West, but from the Western transnational “anti-woke” currents, as well. Recently, anti-gender movement in North Macedonia forges cross-border alliances that translate anti-gender propaganda into institutional pressures — attempting to shape not only education and equality policy, but the conservative political agenda.

Blocking of the gender-equality reforms is not the single effect of the transformation of anti-gender strategies – from online propaganda of disinformation and demonization to policy-adjacent alliances. The rise of the anti-gender propaganda in North Macedonia is in correlation with the rise of gender-based hate speech, including threats against female human rights defenders, noted in the EC Enlargement Report 2025.[62] Anti-gender propaganda alliances in North Macedonia are not only threat to gender equality,[63] but to democracy, human rights, and civil society. Unfortunately, the harmful effects of anti-gender FIMI are not yet recognized and addressed by the state as effects of hybrid threats.

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Endnotes and References:

[1] Cvetkovikj, Irena. “Anti-gender Mobilizations in North Macedonia: A Transnational Tool-Kit for Domestic Actors Against Gender Equality and LGBTQI+ Rights.” Heinrich Böll Stiftung – Sarajevo, 19.04.2024: “Film screenings have emerged as a potent and influential strategy within the realm of anti-gender mobilisation. A key component of this approach is the screening of a carefully selected film, that is the movie “What is a Woman?” directed by Matt Walsh and translated into Macedonian and Albanian. In just a matter of months, this film has been presented in no fewer than 28 municipalities. The coordination of these screenings is a collaborative project between the Eleusis Orthodox Foundation and the Coalition for Child Protection, executed through partnerships with local authorities and cultural institutions. The promotional efforts mirror those employed for public forums, involving the active participation of teachers, religious figures, local government representatives, and local media.”

[2] See, Jovanovska Bojana, Jovanovska Jovana. “ Gendered equality in a time of gendered disinformation”, Institute for Communication Studies, Edition ResPublica, Skopje, 2023, pp.17.

[3] Ibid.: “…almost all comments are directed at the LGBTI+ population, with a focus on the “fear” of legalizing same-sex marriage, while the concept of gender equality, and thus the essence of the law, was not at all discussed. In the comments, a narrative of “us – the normal ones” versus “the others – the abnormal ones” was often used, within which the other is demonized and presented as someone who attacks “their” and “true” values. At the same time, the values of the other are often shown as imposed by the West and Europe, i.e., the EU and which are seen as something evil whose goal is the destruction of the traditional family.”

[4] See “Parents’ Front” in Strumica against gender ideology and indoctrination in schools”, Kanal 5 TV, 14.09.2023: “This evening, at Goce Delchev City Square in Strumica, the association ‘Parents’ Front’ was promoted through an informational gathering that introduced citizens to its work and goals, positioning itself against gender ideology and the indoctrination of children.” See also Parents’ Front Facebook Post, “Let our children be left to experience love on their own, and let discussions about sexuality be held properly with their parents,” said a child (identified by full name) at the informational event of Parents’ Front.

[5] CCP Facebook Post, 16.12.2023 “The conference ‘The Radicalism of Anti-Gender Movements,’ organized by ‘the two organizations that relentlessly position themselves on the front lines of the fight against gender ideology,’ focused on ‘the dangers posed by the legal recognition of gender and the contribution of radical feminism to the disintegration of the family.’”

[6] See Simonovska Miroslava “Ljupcho Palevski was orbiting around the creators of the movement for protection of children” Sloboden Pechat, 08.12.2023: “As the pre-investigation into Vanja’s murder progressed, so did the attempts by Palevski’s political associates to distance themselves from him — and from their own past, in which they jointly engaged in condemning the West, spreading conspiracy theories, demonizing gender equality, stigmatizing the LGBTI community, promoting QAnon in Macedonia during a severe pandemic, all wrapped in the language of patriotism and national loyalty.”

[7] Sara Milenkovska, Coalition MARGINS, Video Interview 22 Oct 2025, 14:00h, IMA studio

[8] Vicar Bishop of Stobi, Mr. Jakov, “Woke” culture: gender theory as one of the main factors enslaving contemporary society,  speech delivered at the academic conference “Serbian Identity, the Serbian Language, and the Law on Gender Equality,” organized by the Information Service of the Serbian Orthodox Church and Matica Srpska on 16 January 2024 at the National Library of Serbia; Tiveriopol, 31.01.2024: “As the main characteristics of ‘woke’ culture, we can mention: extremist feminism, which sees misogyny in everything; so-called toxic masculinity, a term that in fact denotes hatred toward men; critical race theory (so-called white supremacy); climate change; the LGBTI+ agenda, etc. The focus of this ideological movement, at least in our regional context, is certainly gender theory (gender equality) — a mainstreaming concept that represents a kind of ideological matrix for all gender-related legal solutions worldwide.”

[9] Also: “The astonishing connection between the progression of gender ideology and a kind of liberalization of pedophilia at the global level cannot go unnoticed. The latest International Classification of Diseases of the World Health Organization does not consider pedophilia a pathology until the moment of acting upon it.”

[10] See “As civic-religious associations, they proved stronger than some local authorities”, Vlatko Chalovski, 360 Stepeni, 15.04.2024

[11] “The Satanists cannot forgive the Eleusa Foundation, because it organized a series of public forums that exposed all their lies and the destructive plans of HERA, Margins, the Helsinki Committee, and their pawns in the Government, Parliament, state institutions, as well as the collusion and connections between them.” Tiveriopol.mk Facebook post, 12.04.2024

[12] Tiveriopol.mk, An attempt to disqualify Bishop Jakov, associations, etc. that are against gender ideology, 12.04.2024

[13] Facebook Post from Parents’ Front, “As an association of parents, we currently stand categorically against SDSM from the moment they, led by their president Kovachevski, backed this political program that opens the door wide to gender ideology in our society, along with all the political figures and gender activists represented on their lists. On the political scene in Macedonia, we see no other threat at the moment, because no one else has so far ‘gone astray’ or ‘sold their soul to the devil’ to that extent.”, 07.05.2024

[14] See for example Facebook Post from Parents’ Front: “For us, men are men, women are women, boys are boys, girls are girls, and they should live healthy lives in decent families, not be subjected to so-called gender policies,” said from Strumica the holder of VMRO-DPMNE’s candidate list in Electoral District 4, Aleksandar Nikoloski.

[15] See Irena Cvetković, Manja Veličkovska “Who Is Afraid of Gender?”, Coalition MARGINS, 2022. One of the key tools, they argue, is the constant suspicion‑casting around civil society finances: anti‑gender groups use publicly available donor information from NGOs’ own websites to portray them as “foreign mercenaries,” while rarely publishing transparent financial reports themselves.

[16] See Angel Dimitrievski  “The Anti-Gender Movement as a Threat to Democracy in the Western Balkans” GMF / ReThink.CEE, 2025. He shows how they systematically target inclusive education policies and the organizations that promote them—distorting the content of the comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) pilot program, falsely claiming that it encourages early sexual activity, homosexuality, even necrophilia and group sex.

[17] See Parents’ Front FB post, Questions for the President, 14.06.2024

[18] See CPP FB post, The Coalition for the Protection of Children sent a reaction to the President of the Republic of Macedonia, Gordana Siljanovska Davkova, regarding her support for the so-called Pride Parade and the promotion of “gender equality.”, 02.07.2024

[19] See Parents’ Front FB post, “PROGRESSIVE MADNESS FOR SILVER COINS”, 20.09.2024

[20] See Parents’s Front FB posts, “WHO ARE THE PEOPLE WHO, IN THE NAME OF THE ENTIRE STATE, DECIDED TO AWARD A PRESTIGIOUS STATE PRIZE TO A MAN WHO IDENTIFIES AS A WOMAN?!” , 06.12.2024, and, “THE ‘IMPARTIAL’ LUPEVSKA AND THE ‘TRANSPARENT’ POPETREVSKI”, 01.10.2024. Also see “Equalis: Hate, death threats, and calls for lynching over the summer school for LGBTI+ youth and allies” Мета – 16.07.2024, “In his post, he states: ‘According to the Bible, all of these so-called “games” are the work of the devil himself, and a terrible end is foreseen for those who engage in them, as well as for all those who support, promote, and practice them… These are the works of evil.’”,  and also “Support from the Helsinki Committee for EQUALIS, whose members were subjected to death threats and hate speech for organizing a summer school for members of the LGBTI community”, 16.07.2024

[21] IMA, “CENSORSHIP, BOYCOTT, AND THE SHRINKING OF SPACE FOR ACTION BY LGBTIQ ACTIVISTS AND ARTISTS AS A RESULT OF HATE SPEECH” , 12.2024

[22] See Antonio Miloshovski FB post, 26.06.2023

[23] See Antonio Miloshoski FB post, video reel from Parliament speech

[24] “Slavevski on Eurovision: This is not my Europe — satanic messages and perversions; may it never be repeated!” Skopje1 – 12.05.2024 “Professor Trajko Slaveski, who is also President of the Council of the City of Skopje and a member of the Executive Committee of VMRO-DPMNE, welcomed the decision for Macedonia not to participate in Eurovision. He wrote: ‘This is not my Europe!’”

[25] See, Trajanoski, Zharko, The Russian Military Propaganda Satanizes the Olympic Games Too, ima.mk, 10.08.2024.

[26] See Trajanoski, Zharko, Russia’s new Olympic discipline: ‘Boxing’ with anti-gender disinformation, ima.mk, 11.08.2024.

[27] Sara Milenkovska, project coordinator at Coalition MARGINS, Video Interview 22.10.2025, 14:00h, IMA studio

[28] See Executive Order 14168 – DEFENDING WOMEN FROM GENDER IDEOLOGY EXTREMISM AND RESTORING BIOLOGICAL TRUTH TO THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT, 20.01.2025.  With this, President Trump ordered the federal government to recognize only two sexes (male and female) across policies, records, and programs.

[29] See Sareen Habeshian, “Trump: U.S. is “woke no longer“, Axios, 04.03.2025, and Full text of Trump’s speech to a joint session of Congress, 05.03.2025.

[30] Sanela Shkrijelj — former MP, gender‑equality activist, Audio Interview, 05.11.2025, 13:00h.

[31] For example, in their latest Facebook post they share news from an American conservative outlet “The Scoop” on the U.S. Supreme Court’s green light to President Donald Trump’s policy of requiring passports to once again display the gender as recorded on birth certificates, removing the “X” option — neither male nor female. Lindsay Whitehurst, Supreme Court allowed enforcement of birth-sex passport policy, The Associated Press, 07.11.2025

[32] Parents’ Front Facebook Post “THE ASSASSINATION OF CHARLIE KIRK – A WARNING FOR MACEDONIA ALSO: THE RADICAL LEFT WANTS TO DESTROY FAITH, FAMILY, AND FREEDOM!” (11.09.2025)

[33] Ivan Kolekevski, Moms for Freedom: We all come from different countries but share same concerns – children to be safe and well educated, MIA, 01.10.2025.Launched in Ohrid on 1 October 2025 as a national chapter of the new “Moms for Freedom – Global Network.” The Macedonian Information Agency (MIA) reported the Ohrid event as the formal start of a worldwide initiative aimed at “elevating motherhood,” encouraging women to become mothers, and mobilizing mothers toward shaping family‑ and education‑related policies — with North Macedonia framed as a key hub in the network’s international expansion.

[34] Moms for America press release: Moms for America to Hold Press Conference Announcing Launch of International Mom Movement, 06.10.2025

[35] Zhenski Magazin, “Feminism has gone too far; it does not reflect the real situation of the contemporary Macedonian woman”: Interview with Ana Dukoska (VIDEO), 02.09.2025

[36] Press Release from the President’s Office: “Siljanovska-Davkova received Dukoska, president of the association ‘I Am Woman.’”, 22.07.2025

[37] Moms of America, Our Three-Fold Mission, and Moms of America, A Mom’s Guide to Parental Rights, 2022

[38] Ana Cvetkovska, Koroveshovska from “I am woman” for MIA: There are no stronger creatures on earth than the babies and the mothers that who take care of their children alone, MIA, 23.08.2025 Although Koroveshovska avoids the term “anti-gender,” she recodes gender-equality politics as a moral and national survival struggle, arguing that over the past decade NGOs promoting “democratization” advanced “foreign strategies” contrary to Macedonian national interests, while a “true value system” was dismantled through left ideology and media disparagement of conservatives, prompting an “awakening” to restore “real values” rooted in family, education, science, and culture. She presents “I am woman” as the vehicle for this restoration and explicitly links it to Trump-era U.S. debates, aligning the Macedonian initiative with U.S. conservative parental-rights and pro-motherhood organizations—while keeping the anti-gender framing implicit rather than explicit

[39] Sanela Shkrijelj — former MP, gender‑equality activist, Audio Interview, 05.11.2025, 13:00h

[40] Kalia Dimitrova, editor-in-chief, Meduza, Interview 04.11.2025, 13:00h, Helsinki Committee, Skopje

[41] Elizabeta Bozhinoska, Program Director at H.E.R.A., Video Interview 28.10.2025, 15:00h, IMA studio

[42] Mile Boshnjakovski, strategic communications consultant, Video Interview 22.10.2025, 12:30h, IMA studio

[43] Parents’ Front Facebook Post , GENDER IDEOLOGY REMOVED FROM EDUCATION!!!
AMENDMENTS TO THE LAW ON PRIMARY EDUCATION AND THE LAWS ON TEXTBOOKS FOR PRIMARY AND SECONDARY EDUCATION HAVE BEEN ADOPTED!!!, 02.04.2025

[44] Tona Kareva-Taleska, “Brief analysis of the amendments to the laws on primary and secondary education and their compliance with the EU directives on non-discrimination,” EPI, 06.2025

[45] MP Miloshoski, MP Eli Panova, MP Petar Markov

[46] Parents’ Front Facebook Post, Representatives of the “Parents’ Front” held a working meeting with the VMRO-DPMNE candidate for mayor of the Municipality of Strumica, 07.10.2025

[47] Parents’ Front Facebook Post, Parents’ Front congratulates the victory of the new Mayor of the Municipality of Strumica, Mr. Petar Jankov, 20.10.2025

[48] Parents’ Front Facebook Post, Representatives of Parents’ Front were received today by the Mayor of the Municipality of Strumica, Mr. Petar Jankov, 04.11.2025

[49] Anonymous interviewee from Strumica, Audio Interview, 03.11.2025, 12:00h

[50] Parents’ Front Facebook post, The Tricks of SDSM, video reel

[51] Commission for Prevention and Protection from Discrimination, “Reaction… following the amendments to the Law on Primary Education,” 10.12.2024

[52] “Coalition for Child Protection: VMRO stabbed in the back all voters for whom family and children come first”, Puls24.mk, 18.02.2025

[53] Facebook Post from CCP.

[54] GENDER IDEOLOGY – NO, GENDER EQUALITY – YES There will be no ideologies in the national priorities that are contrary to the cultural, social and constitutional norms of Macedonia”, PlusInfo, 23.06.2025

[55] Smrdelj, Rok; Kuhar, Roman. “Anti-Gender Mobilizations in Europe and the Feminist Response: Productive Resistance”, Palgrave Macmillan Cham, 13.02.2025.

[56] See Milenkovska, Sara, “Policy Paper on the Effects of the Shrinking Policy Space for Civil Society – Negative Effects of Anti-Feminist Policies and Anti-Gender Movements” , Helsinki Committee for Human Rights of the Republic of North Macedonia, 15.12.2023. Sara Milenkovska’s policy paper on shrinking civic space in the Western Balkans underscores how, after Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, anti‑gender and anti‑LGBTI narratives became an integral component of pro‑Russian disinformation campaigns. This not only deepens stigma but also poses ethical challenges for journalists who report on gender and sexuality.

[57] See Kovachevska, Despina; Trojachanec, Matej; Rizaov, Goran “Enablers and Incentives of Election-Related Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference in North Macedonia”, International IDEA, 2025. These rhetorical strategies portray gender equality as unnatural, foreign and anti‑national, while men who support gender rights are ridiculed as mentally ill or effeminate—which in turn reinforces toxic masculinity and squeezes the space for male allies.

[58] Kalia Dimitrova, editor-in-chief, Meduza, Audio Interview, 04.11.2025, 13:00h, Helsinki Committee, Skopje.

[59] See Jovanovska, Bojana; Jovanovska, Jovana “Gender-Based Content Analysis: Gender Equality in a Time of Gendered Disinformation”, Institute of Communication Studies (ICS), edition ResPublica, 19.10.2023. The ICS study on gender disinformation notes that by giving uncritical space to anti‑gender campaigns—such as the screenings of ‘What Is a Woman?’  contribute directly to dehumanization and to a wave of verbal attacks and threats against supporters of gender equality, most of whom are women.

[60] Kalia Dimitrova, editor-in-chief, Meduza, Audio Interview, 04.11.2025, 13:00h, Helsinki Committee, Skopje: “Imported films, slogans or U.S. culture-war talking points work precisely because “it’s very easy—even with imported phrases, films, whatever—to ignite that climate and bring to the surface all those things that, over the years, people slightly self-censored—hatred, misogyny, hatred toward LGBTI people.” Without sustained, bottom-up work in education, she warns, these attitudes remain latent, merely “waiting for a moment to express them”—and when they do, “it will go to these extremes.”

[61] See Velichkovska, Atanasovska, Milenkovska “ Censorship, boycotts, and the shrinking of space for LGBTIQ activists and artists as a result of hate speech”, IMA, 17.12.2024

[62] See North Macedonia 2025 Report, Brussels, 4.11.2025, p. 40.

[63] See North Macedonia 2025 Report, Brussels, 4.11.2025, p. 40: “Shifts in municipal policies from gender equality to ‘equality between men and women,’ undermine gender equality”.

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This article was developed in partnership with the regional initiative Western Balkans Anti-Disinformation Hub, implemented by the Metamorphosis Foundation with financial support from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The contents of the article are the responsibility of IMA, Skopje and do not necessarily reflect the positions of the project partners and donor.