Macedonian Opposition Elects New Leader

Macedonia’s main opposition party, the Social Democrats, voted to elect its deputy leader Zoran Zaev as its new chief at a party congress on Sunday.

Sinisa Jakov Marusic

BIRN

Skopje

Zoran Zaev

Zaev, the party’s vice president and the mayor of Strumica, was backed by 395 delegates at the congress, winning a convincing majority in the race to succeed the Social Democrats’ longstanding chief Branko Crvenkovski, who had previously announced that he was stepping down.

The other two contestants, Zoran Jovanovski and Kire Naumov, won 137 and 15 votes respectively. A fourth candidate, Igor Ivanovski withdrew his candidacy two days before the congress, insisting he was doing so in order not to harm the unity of the party.

“I promise I will do everything, with your support, to see Macedonia back on its feet again,” Zaev said after he was elected, pledging to unite the party's ranks after its defeat at the March-April local elections.

Zaev is seen as a charismatic mayor in the south-eastern town of Strumica, a Social Democrat bastion over the last ten years.

Zaev has already briefly led the party in 2008, holding the post temporarily until the return of Crvenkovski, who was then finishing his term as head of state.

The election of a new head of the opposition came after Crvenkovski announced his resignation following the party's crushing defeat in the local elections. It was the seventh such election defeat in a row at the hands of the ruling centre-right VMRO DPMNE party of Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski.

“God knows how much I wanted to lead you to election victory, but my policies were not supported," Crvenkovski said in his farewell speach.

A veteran of the political scene and a former Macedonian president and two-time prime minister, Crvenkovski first became head of the Social Democrats back in 1991.

After interrupting his party leadership in 2004 to serve as head of state, he came back to head the party again in 2009, when he was seen as best hope of uniting it against the VMRO DPMNE.

Gruevski responded to the leadership vote at the opposition congress with cynicism.

“It is clear that whoever wins there, Branko Crvenkovski will remain the hidden head of the party. They [the candidates] have been fighting for Crvenkovski’s affection more than anything else,” Gruevski told local media.