Two small coalition partners of the ruling SDSM party announced a platform for cooperation in the run up to the municipal elections in October. The once sizable Liberal Democratic Party and the DOM green party said that they will work to offer an alternative to SDSM and VMRO-DPMNE, even while they remain in coalition with the former, and spent years in coalition with the latter party. Party leaders Goran Milevski and Maja Moracanin presented some new faces that are joining their team, such as microbiologist Nikola Panovski, who is a constant feature on the TV since the pandemic started.

Some will say I’m trying to cash in on my popularity, but then I would have joined some of the major parties. Macedonia is a divided country, SDSM and (VMRO) DPMNE hate each other from the bottom of their hearts and there is no dialogue, just holy war. And this is going on for 30 years now, Panovski said.

LDP and DOM are now trying to win several mayoral seats and seats in municipal councils that will help them exert influence over both major parties. It is expected that the DS party led by Pavle Trajanov will join them in some capacity. At the moment they are not announcing an attempt to bring down the SDSM led Government, which is within their ability. DOM recently split in two, as a top party official Miroslav Bogdanovski had a conflict with Moracanin and eventually left Parliament, delivering his seat to an SDSM representative.