Stevo Pendarovski

Stevo Pendarovski was born on 3 April 1963 in Skopje. His family originates from Galičnik.{{cite web |url=https://pretsedatel.mk/en/president-pendarovski-attends-and-addresses-the-traditional-galichka-wedding-event/ |title=President Pendarovski attended and addressed the traditional Galičnik Wedding event |date=14 July 2019 |website=pretsedatel.mk |access-date=3 August 2021 |quote=I am honored and pleased to be the patron of this year's Galičnik Wedding, not only as President, but also as a man who is originally from this village and this region.}} He grew up in post-earthquake Skopje. His parents were teachers.{{cite web |url=https://emagazin.mk/galeri-a-stevo-pendarovski-privatno-blagoroden-i-neobichno-duhovit-i-prekrasen-tatko/ |title=Стево Пендаровски приватно: Благороден и необично духовит татко |date=6 April 2019 |access-date=3 August 2021 |language=Macedonian |trans-title=}} Pendarovski started his elementary studies at the then-Dositej Obradovikj School in Skopje (current-day Panajot Ginovski School) while he finished his secondary studies at the Cvetan Dimov gymnasium.{{cite video|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2nsQ1sn3s7c&t=56s&ab_channel=ReporterMK|title=Пендаровски: Добивав купови љубовни писма, ама жена ми знае дека не играм на дупло|trans-title=Pendarovski: I Was Receiving a Ton of Love Letters, But My Wife Knows that I Never Play Double|work=Reporter MK|date=5 April 2019|language=mk|accessdate=8 November 2022}}{{cite web|url=https://pretsedatel.mk/en/president-pendarovski-visits-first-graders-in-the-elementary-school-panajot-ginovski/|title=President Pendarovski visits first graders in the elementary school "Panajot Ginovski"|publisher=Pretsedatel.mk|date=3 September 2019|accessdate=8 November 2022}}

Pendarovski earned a Bachelor of Laws degree from Ss. Cyril and Methodius University of Skopje in 1987, later earning his MA and Ph.D. degrees in Political Science from the same university.{{cite web |url=https://pretsedatel.mk/en/biography-of-the-president/ |title=Biography of the president |date= |website=pretsedatel.mk |access-date=3 August 2021}}

As a law graduate, Pendarovski first worked as a trainee in a law office in Skopje, but later left and got a job at the Ministry of Internal Affairs, where he worked as a security analyst.{{cite web |url=https://360stepeni.mk/pendarovski-niz-ochite-na-sorabotnicite-nesuden-advokat-tvrdoglav-galichanec-pragmatichen-politichar/ |title=Пендаровски низ очите на соработниците: Несуден адвокат, тврдоглав галичанец, прагматичен политичар |author=Slavica Filipovska |date=14 May 2019 |website= 360 stepeni|access-date= 3 August 2021|language=Macedonian |trans-title=}} In 1998, he was appointed head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs' Analysis and Research Administration and a spokesman for the ministry, in the capacity of Deputy Minister of Public Relations. He was a spokesman for the Ministry of Internal Affairs during the country's 2001 armed conflict.{{cite web |url=https://vistinomer.mk/stevo-pendarovski-preku-dva-pretsedatelski-kabineta-do-biroto-na-shefot-na-drzhavata-so-svoe-ime/ |title=Стево Пендаровски: Преку два претседателски кабинета до бирото на шефот на државата со свое име |author=Ljubomir Kostovski |date=4 March 2019 |website=vistinomer.mk |access-date= 3 August 2021|language=Macedonian |trans-title=}}

In 2001, Pendarovski joined the cabinet of President Boris Trajkovski, where he worked as a national security advisor. President Trajkovski and eight other people, including three members of his cabinet, died in a plane crash in Bosnia and Herzegovina on 26 February 2004. When the plane crash happened, Pendarovski was in Dublin as a representative of President Trajkovski in the state delegation that was due to submit the country's application for EU membership that day, which was subsequently postponed.{{cite web |url=https://www.faktor.mk/intervju-pendarovski-so-niedna-partija-ne-sum-razgovaral-za-kandidatura-za-pretsedatel-1 |title=Пендаровски: Со ниедна партија не сум разговарал за кандидатура за претседател! |date=3 March 2019 |website=faktor.mk |access-date= 3 August 2021|language=Macedonian |trans-title=}}

For a short period, from 2004 to 2005, Pendarovski headed the State Election Commission. In 2005, he returned to the presidential cabinet, this time as an advisor to President Branko Crvenkovski on national security and later on foreign policy. Pendarovski left the presidential cabinet in 2009, when Crvenkovski ended his presidency.

Pendarovski began teaching at the University American College in Skopje in 2008. Some of the areas he has taught and researched are: international relations, intelligence and national security, geopolitics, globalization, US foreign policy, EU foreign and security policy, small states in international relations and others.

On 4 March 2014, Pendarovski was elected by the main opposition party in Macedonia, the Social Democratic Union, as its candidate for the April 2014 presidential election.{{Cite web|date=3 May 2014|title=Pendarovski, official presidential nominee of the Macedonian opposition|url=https://balkaneu.com/pendarovski-official-presidential-nominee-macedonian-opposition|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191229091713/https://balkaneu.com/pendarovski-official-presidential-nominee-macedonian-opposition/|archive-date=29 December 2019|access-date=19 July 2020|website=Independent Balkan Agency}}

===Presidency (2019–2024)===

File:Sanna Marin ja Stevo Pendarovski (52161046177).jpg in Skopje on 20 June 2022]]

Pendarovski ran in the 2019 election as a presidential candidate of the Social Democratic Union and the Democratic Union for Integration.{{Cite web |date=1 March 2019 |title=Стево Пендаровски е консензуален претседателски кандидат на СДСМ и ДУИ |trans-title=Stevo Pendarovski is a consensual presidential candidate of SDSM and DUI |url=https://tocka.com.mk/vesti/299732/stevo-pendarovski-e-konsenzualen-pretsedatelski-kandidat-na-sdsm-i-dui |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200504220302/https://tocka.com.mk/vesti/299732/stevo-pendarovski-e-konsenzualen-pretsedatelski-kandidat-na-sdsm-i-dui |archive-date=4 May 2020 |website=Точка (in Macedonian)}}{{Cite web |last=Matamoros |first=Cristina Abellan |date=12 May 2019 |title=North Macedonia's new president Stevo Pendarovski takes office |url=https://www.euronews.com/2019/05/12/north-macedonia-s-new-president-stevo-pendarovski-takes-office |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200719201200/https://www.euronews.com/2019/05/12/north-macedonia-s-new-president-stevo-pendarovski-takes-office |archive-date=19 July 2020 |access-date=19 July 2020 |website=euronews |language=en}} He went on to win 436,212 votes in the second round of the presidential election, 51.66% of the votes cast.{{Cite web |date=12 May 2019 |title=Биографија на новиот претседател Стево Пендаровски |trans-title=Biography of the new President Stevo Pendarovski |url=https://a1on.mk/macedonia/biografija-na-noviot-pretsedatel-stevo-pendarovski/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200719184812/https://a1on.mk/macedonia/biografija-na-noviot-pretsedatel-stevo-pendarovski/ |archive-date=19 July 2020 |access-date=19 July 2020 |website=А1он (in Macedonian) |language=en-US}}

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Pendarovski introduced the nation's first ever state of emergency to contain the coronavirus, a move that paved the way for a 2020 parliamentary election.{{cite news | url=https://www.reuters.com/article/health-coronavirus-north-macedonia-idUSL8N2DP2QZ | title=North Macedonia lifts state of emergency, paving way for election | newspaper=Reuters | date=12 June 2020 }}

In February 2022, Pendarovski was seen walking with Embla Ademi, an 11-year-old girl with Down syndrome, to her elementary school in Gostivar after he heard she was being bullied.{{Cite web |last=Goodwin |first=Allegra |date=2022-02-12 |title=An 11-year-old girl with Down syndrome was being bullied. So her country's president walked her to school |url=https://www.ctvnews.ca/world/an-11-year-old-girl-with-down-syndrome-was-being-bullied-so-her-country-s-president-walked-her-to-school-1.5779128 |access-date=2022-04-06 |website=CTVNews |language=en}}{{Cite web |author=Allegra Goodwin |title=North Macedonia President walks bullied 11-year-old girl to school |url=https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/11/europe/north-macedonia-bullied-girl-president-intl-scli/index.html |access-date=2022-04-06 |website=CNN|date=11 February 2022 }}

Pendarovski is married to Elizabeta Gjorgievska, a medical doctor who works at the Clinic for Pediatric and Preventive Dentistry and a professor at the Faculty of Dentistry in Skopje. They have one child, named Ognen.{{Cite web|title=Добрината е единственото што останува по нас: Интервју со Елизабета Ѓоргиевска, сопруга на Претседателот Стево Пендаровски|trans-title=Goodness is the only thing left after us: Interview with Elizabeta Gjorgievska, wife of President Stevo Pendarovski|url=https://zenskimagazin.mk/dobrinata-e-edinstvenoto-shto-ostanuva-po-nas-intervju-so-elizabeta-gjorgievska-sopruga-na-pretsedatelot-stevo-pendarovski-|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200719195727/https://zenskimagazin.mk/dobrinata-e-edinstvenoto-shto-ostanuva-po-nas-intervju-so-elizabeta-gjorgievska-sopruga-na-pretsedatelot-stevo-pendarovski-|archive-date=19 July 2020|access-date=19 July 2020|website=Женски Магазин (in Macedonian)|language=en}}

• {{flag|Poland}}: Knight of the Order of the White Eagle (24 October 2022){{Cite web|url=https://pretsedatel.mk/en/president-pendarovski-in-warsaw-awarded-with-the-order-of-the-white-eagle-president-duda-with-the-september-8-order/|title=President Pendarovski in Warsaw awarded with the Order of the White Eagle, President Duda with the "September 8" Order|website=pretsedatel.mk|date=24 October 2022 |accessdate=21 March 2023}}

{{Reflist}}

• {{commons category-inline}}

{{s-start}}

{{s-off}}

{{s-bef|before=Gjorge Ivanov}}

{{s-ttl|title=President of North Macedonia|years=2019–2024}}

{{s-aft|after=Gordana Siljanovska-Davkova}}

{{s-end}}

{{Presidents of North Macedonia}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pendarovski, Stevo}}

Category:1963 births

Category:Living people

Category:Politicians from Skopje

Category:Ss. Cyril and Methodius University of Skopje alumni

Category:21st-century Macedonian politicians

Category:Social Democratic Union of Macedonia politicians

Category:Presidents of North Macedonia