Former health minister Filipce elected North Macedonia’s opposition leader

North Macedonia's Socialist SDSM party elected Venko Filipce as its new leader on Sunday.

Some 9,052 party members voted for Filipce, who will become the new opposition leader. He currently sits as an MP.

Filipce served as health minister from 2017 to 2022. Despite the fact that he was very popular during the coronavirus pandemic, his tenure was marked by a fire in a hospital in Tetovo that claimed the lives of 14 people.

In his victory speech, Filipce said that now is the time for the party's "renewal". Faced with demotivated membership, a splinter party and a very strong government majority in parliament, his goal remains all the more elusive.

The leadership race was called after the resignation of Kovacevski, which followed the party's worst result in its history. The Social Democrats received around 150,000 votes and only 18 parliamentary seats in...