Macedonia Opposition Considers Forging United Front

After Macedonia's main opposition party, the Social Democrats, SDSM hinted that it will discuss at its October 2 party congress ways of combining all opposition forces into one united front against Gruevski's ruling VMRO DPMNE, several smaller parties have said they are interested in the idea of collaboration.

The recently-formed Coalition for Changes and Justice, which unites several smaller opposition parties like the Democratic Alliance, DS, FRODEM and the Demos party, said it was open for cooperation.

"Our openness to cooperation includes the SDSM as well, but only on principled grounds and with one common goal - the toppling of the VMRO DPMNE-led government," said Pavle Trajanov, the head of the DS.

The small right-wingt VMRO - People's Party expects that a plan to establish the opposition front should be drawn up in the next ten days, without further delays.

"This decision depends solely on the SDSM. If they truly want a wide opposition front, the decision should only be confirmed at their party congress," an anonymous VMRO - People's Party source told Deutsche Welle, adding that the party is open to cooperation.

The SDSM's vice-president Radmila Shekerinska told media on Sunday that her party, which already leads a coalition of smaller parties as well as of civil rights movements and NGOs against Gruevski, is seriously mulling the ideal of broadening cooperation ahead of the December elections.

"The people are tired of endless quarrels and political conflicts. They want to see people who know how to create not just coalitions, but partnerships, allies, to help us build a common future. That's why our proposal to the [party] congress [set for October 2] will be not to create simple party coalitions,...