The secret coalition between SDSM and Danela Arsovska has been made public. This is the response from VMRO-DPMNE, after the Mayor of Skopje announced her new political move today.

Danela Arsovska, who was elected to her position as VMRO candidate in 2021 but quickly turned her back on the opposition party, was elected leader of the small New Democracy party today. Even though she insisted that she is going to act from the opposition, the most noticeable face at the inauguration was that of Mile Zecevic, the powerful former intelligence officer turned Secretary General of the ruling SDSM party.

This is the best indicator of the value of this party, when the main piece of news to come from its rebranding is that the SDS Secretary General was present during the event, said VMRO-DPMNE in a statement.

Zecevic is considered to be the main political operative of outgoing Prime Minister Dimitar Kovacevski and the true power in SDSM. He is suspected of being especially involved in the SDSM funded project – to create divisions in VMRO-DPMNE and, failing that, to create parties that will copy VMRO’s positions, but actually try to syphon votes from the opposition. As SDSM trails VMRO badly in the polls, this becomes a matter of urgency for the Government, which faces a major defeat.

Arsovska has little political influence in the opposition, and was unable to gather 1,000 votes to set up her own party, so she took over New Alternative instead. The party was set up by doctor Gjorgji Orovcanec and is still formally in coalition with SDSM – only days ago a top SDSM member of Parliament named it as part of their coalition for the coming general and presidential elections. Orovcanec stood down and likely “sold” the party to Arsovska, allowing her to avoid the hassle of registering a new party.

After being elected, Arsovska turned against VMRO-DPMNE and teamed up with the Mayor of Karpos Stevco Jakimovski and the crew of Infomax – a news site that built its reputation among opposition voters by attacking SDSM. Now the news site, whose editors Aleksandar Mitovski and his wife Natalija are the main political advisers of Danela Arsovska, is focused exclusively on attacking VMRO-DPMNE. This added to the impression that after her election, Arsovska quickly decided to cash in by offering her pulpit to SDSM.

VMRO-DPMNE blames SDSM of recklessly funding extreme groups in an attempt to splinter the opposition vote. One of the parties that appealed to the right, Desna, was frequently featured on Infomax and kept attacking VMRO-DPMNE for not being strong enough in opposing the SDSM led regime. The party leader Ljupco Palevski, former top SDSM party official and secret police insider turned pro-Russian nationalist/populist, is currently charged with carrying out the horrific murder of a 15 year old girl that he and party activists were trying to kidnap for still unclear reasons.