Democratic Platform urges opposition unity, says 'not with Filipche'

A group of current and former SDSM officials presented a new Democratic Platform today, saying their primary objective is to unite the opposition and restore citizens' trust — but explicitly excluding Venko Filipche as the party leader.

Platform members call for broader opposition unity

At a press briefing the group — which includes Igor Ivanovski, Emilijan Stankovic, Gordan Georgiev, Andrej Petrov, Nikola Kurkchiev and Slavjanka Petrovska — said they do not intend to form a new political party. Instead, they described their initiative as an effort to consolidate opposition forces into a civic, multi-ethnic platform and to push for leadership change within SDSM.

"We will not become a new political party, we will not become ZNAM or NSDP. We will not run independent lists for parliamentary elections either. Our goal is to help, to unite everyone into one civic, multi-ethnic platform and changes of this SDSM leadership. The ultimate goal is the defeat of this government. SDSM fought against a captured state, and became a captured party," said Igor Ivanovski, a member of the platform.

The initiators said they will present a set of solutions they believe can pull the opposition out of its current impasse and prepare it to face and defeat the government. They argued there is a clear oppositional mood among citizens but a lack of a strong, organized political alternative, and announced talks with citizens, organizations and parties to broaden the unification effort.

Former defence minister and current SDSM MP Slavjanka Petrovska said the platform's public appearance follows almost two years of internal party discussions and attempts to enact change.

"For a long period I spoke from inside the party. I had several conversations with the party president and they either ended with silence or with confirmation, and then with failure to implement what was agreed. Therefore, after two years we decided to appear publicly. I received indecent offers from the leadership to be part of it, in exchange for pushing things under the table. I did not agree," Petrovska said, adding that the people who are part of the platform are not SDSM's problem but could be part of the solution for the party's situation.

Emilijan Stankovic told reporters that Filipche is not fit to lead the party and that the platform has a plan for structural reforms within SDSM. "Filipche is not a representative of SDSM membership. He took a membership card before he became a minister. When we fought the regime, Filipche was part of the counter-regime camp. We have a plan how to trigger structural changes in SDSM, but first we will tell Filipche," Stankovic said.

SDSM president Venko Filipche responded by inviting current and former party officials who are among the initiators of the Democratic Platform to join an internal party debate, warning that further fragmentation of the opposition is not in the country's interest. Filipche also accused some of the initiators of having financial ties to the current government.

Photo: SDK.MK)