English
At today’s press conference, the President of the Social Democratic Union of Macedonia (SDSM), Venko Filipche, described yesterday’s event organized by the “Platform for Change in SDSM” as an attempt to divert public attention from government policies, asserting that the party remains the country’s sole opposition bastion.
According to Filipche, the event represents a coalition of individuals acting in the government’s interest to fragment the opposition at a time when—as he put it—the leadership is addressing key social and economic issues. He stated that the former SDSM officials had underestimated the party’s membership and that their actions are part of a prolonged campaign directed against the Social Democrats. Yesterday, we saw a small group of putschists gathered in one place—former SDSM officials, as well as members of other parties like the LDP, people employed by ZNAM, and—mind you—members of Levica, a party whose values and policies are diametrically opposed to ours, a party that openly advocates for Russian and Chinese interests here and is funded by Russia and China… Yesterday, it was proven that the Social Democratic Union of Macedonia is the country’s sole opposition bastion. Yesterday, SDSM demonstrated and proved itself to be the only party capable of spearheading the opposition movement and channeling the entire opposition energy in the country. “I regret that those former party officials—former party comrades of ours—underestimated SDSM members,” said the SDSM president.Filipche noted that their goal is to divert public attention away from issues concerning mines, borrowing, agriculture, wages, pensions, and international representation. Why don’t they speak—or why do they distract from the issue—instead of engaging in strong, well-argued opposition criticism of the government regarding its poor policies? Why don’t they talk about the data centers, or the intention of Hristijan Mickoski and his gang to take water away from farmers? Why don’t they speak about the five new mines being included for the first time in the spatial plan—a plan drafted by the Ministry of Environment? Antimony will be mined for foreign interests—antimony that will seep into the soil and water, polluting both and endangering the health of people living in those regions. Five new mines—the very ones we fought against—Filipche emphasized.“We understand the reasons for the growing agitation, but we will not remain silent in the face of such manipulations, as we feel duty-bound to protect the integrity of those participants in yesterday’s ‘Conversations #2’ session who are not politicians,” stated the organizers of “Conversations for the Future at 12:05” in a written response regarding today’s press conference by SDSM President Venko Filipche.