Democratic Platform seeks to unite opposition and defeat the government
Representatives from current and former SDSM officials say they will not form a new party but want inclusive talks to consolidate opposition forces.
Representatives of a newly public Democratic Platform — Gordan Georgiev, Andrej Petrov, Slavjanka Petrovska, Igor Ivanovski, Nikola Kurkchiev and Emilijan Stankovic — said at a briefing that they want to launch talks to consolidate the opposition and ultimately defeat the current government.
They stressed the group is not intended to become a new party nor to run independent lists in parliamentary elections. "We are not and will not become a new political party. We will not form independent lists for parliamentary elections either. Our goal is to help consolidate the opposition and restore the trust of citizens disappointed after the failure of promises made in 2016–2017," the platform's representatives said.
Platform formed by current and former SDSM officials
According to the speakers, the platform is made up of current and former officials of SDSM who in private had held internal talks during the past two years that produced no substantive change. Slavjanka Petrovska said those private conversations with party leadership — including with party head Venko Filipche — either ended in silence or in agreements that were not implemented.
Igor Ivanovski criticised the government’s record and the weakness of the opposition: "This government has shown an absence of willingness to fight corruption, an absence of will to reform, above all in the judiciary, an absence of service policies — in health, in education, in the economy. This government is a candidate to be among the most incapable governments and has disappointed citizens' expectations. But why does the government have such a rating — because there is an absence of an alternative in the equation, and that is the absence of a capable, effective, strong opposition that would not allow such imbalance," he said.
Emilijan Stankovic and Andrej Petrov added sharp criticism of Venko Filipche's leadership capacity and denied any links between the platform and former party leader Zoran Zaev. Stankovic said: "Filipche is not a representative of the SDSM membership; he obtained a membership card before he became a minister. When we fought against the regime, Filipche was part of the counter-plateau. We have a plan on how to trigger structural changes in SDSM, but first we will tell Filipche."
The platform said it seeks to create "a civic, multiethnic platform" and to start inclusive talks with every citizen, organisation, party and SDSM — but explicitly not SDSM under its current leadership. The next round of platform talks is scheduled for Saturday at 12:05.
Photo: press material from the event
