Macedonia Opposition Mulls 'Parallel Government'

The opposition led by the Social Democratic Party, SDSM, whose MPs submitted written resignations to parliament last week after alleging fraud at April's elections, is seriously considering setting up a ‘shadow government’, a high-ranking party source told Balkan Insight on Monday.

“The party organs are considering various mechanisms. The idea of a shadow cabinet and a shadow parliament is being seriously considered because the current institutions of the system function as mere shells without any substance,” the source said on condition of anonymity.

He said that as part of the effort “to restore democracy in the country”, a whole range of parallel institutions could be set up in opposition to Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski's government.

These could include a Financial Council, a Forum of Independent Judges, Anti-Corruption Commission and a National Security Agency, he said.

Last Wednesday, 33 MPs from the SDSM, the Liberal Democrats, LDP, and the New Social Democrats, NSDP, submitted formal resignations to the speaker of parliament. They dispute the legitimacy of the April general and presidential elections and attribute the victory of Nikola Gruevski's VMRO DPMNE party to fraud.

The SDSM head Zoran Zaev then announced that his party would soon launch further action.

He said that there would be “precise activities that will be open for participation to all the progressive forces in the country”, although he declined to give any further details about what these might be.

Tito Petkovski, the head of the smaller NSDP opposition party, has already said that he backs the idea of parallel institutions.

“Our goal is to restore normality in the country trough a firm and bold boycott that...