Pendarovski Urged to Lead Macedonia Opposition

In his first interview since standing down as SDSM leader a year ago, Branko Crvenkovski said the opposition’s presidential candidate in the April elections should now lead the party out of its current travails.

Pendarovski, who was once a political advisor to Crvenkovski when he was head of state from 2004 to 2009, briefly told NOVA TV he had “no comment”.

Crvenkovski said that after its defeat in the April general and presidential elections, the party needed a new leader to consolidate the fight against Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski who has held power since 2006.

“Neither I nor [current SDSM leader Zoran] Zaev is the solution for this situation,” Crvenkovski told Deutsche Welle, adding that Pendarovski could do the job better.

“Resistance is not led from offices and in press conferences. It takes leadership with great credibility and an even bigger unifying capacity. We need an authority that surpasses the frames of the party,” Crvenkovski said.

The former leader said Pendarovski possessed an “immaculate biography” and that winning 400,000 votes in the fradulent presidential election, 120,000 more than the SDSM won in the parallel general elections, gave him “respectable credibility” to lead the opposition.

“Pendarovski was never part of any inter-party divisions, which would give him a great starting position for inter-party reconciliation and unification,” Crvenkovski said, adding that it should not be a problem that Pendarovski is formally not a member of the SDSM.

Since losing the April elections, which the party has blamed on election fraud, the SDSM has refused to take up its seats in parliament.

It has instead demanded the formation of a caretaker government...