After Venko Filipce was elected leader of SDSM, a small group of his supporters brought a brass band before the party office to celebrate.

The overall mood was far from celebratory, given SDSM’s dramatic loss in the recent elections and the on-going divisions in the party that threaten to weaken it even further. Filipce himself said that this is no time for celebrations. But his team, closely linked to the faction of former party leader Zoran Zaev who supported Filipce in the elections, tried to make the best of the occasion anyway.