Former SDSM officials form 'Platform 12:05' and will present measures to Venko Filipche

A group of former SDSM officials announced a political initiative called the "12:05" platform and said they will deliver a set of proposed measures next week to SDSM leader Venko Filipche aimed at forcing leadership changes inside the party.

Platform leaders: we are not forming a new party

At a briefing, the platform's six initiators — Igor Ivanovski, Andrej Petrov, Slavjanka Petrovska, Gordan Gjorgiev, Emilijan Stankovic and Nikola Curkciev — said their aim is to restore credibility to SDSM and to rebuild ties with the membership. They signalled parallel work to broaden an opposition front that, they say, should include critical public voices and smaller opposition groups with the objective of defeating the government of Hristijan Mickoski.

Igor Ivanovski, one of the platform's founders, was explicit about the group's intentions and limits. "We are not and will not be a new political party, we will not be ZNAM nor NSDP. No, we will not make independent lists for parliamentary elections. We will not do that. Our goal is to help, to unite everyone into a civic, multiethnic platform and to change this SDSM leadership. The end goal is victory over this government. SDSM fought against a captured state, and became a captured party," he said.

Emilijan Stankovic repeated the criticism of Filipche's ties to the party membership and alleged manipulation of internal processes. He said 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-platform. Venko Filipche is not a representative of SDSM membership, he is a representative of fictitious voting cards. We are analysing how internal party votes were cast and who validated that fraud," Stankovic said.

MP Slavjanka Petrovska said she had raised objections inside SDSM for years and accused some in the leadership of making improper offers to silence critics. "For a long period I spoke from inside the party, I had several conversations with the party president and those talks either ended in silence or with confirmation and then non-implementation of what was agreed. That is why, after two years, we decided to appear publicly. I got indecent offers from the leadership to be part of it in exchange for pushing things under the table. I did not agree," she said.

In addition to their criticism of Venko Filipche, the initiators targeted the government of Hristijan Mickoski on shortcomings ranging from the economy to the fight against corruption. Nikola Curkciev, identified in the coverage as one of SDSM's founders, also announced he will file a criminal complaint over what he described as a forged document linked to Filipche and accused a company, where Curkciev was once an authorised representative, of receiving state tenders.

Photo: press material from the event