First Albanian-Macedonian Pre-election Coalition

The currently in power Social Democratic League (LSDM), led by former Prime Minister Zoran Zaev, has reached agreement with Besa Movement for participation with joint lists in early parliamentary elections on 12 April.

In the adopted declaration, the two parties have pledged that they will engage in the country's European sub-integration, as well as strengthening and cultivating values between ethnic communities in the country, counting them as an asset that can only facilitate state integration towards the European Union”.

LSDM and Movement Besa say they will engage in equal development in all spheres and the entire territory of the state indiscriminately of ethnic affiliation, fighting crime and corruption at all levels of power and reform of the judiciary, as well as on other issues.

The Besa movement in the 2016 elections had won five deputies, but after its split it was left with three deputies, after two others have moved to the new Alternative party, which has entered the pre-election coalition with the Alliance for Albanians headed by Ziadin Sela.

The Democratic Union for Integration (BDI), led by Ali Ahmeti, who is in a coalition with LSDM, her partner's coalition with the Besa Movement, has called <x1 possible harmful to Albanians”, as according to this party, the coalitions with Macedonian parties must do after the elections.

Commenting on reactions to the opinion, in particular those of other parties towards such a coalition, connoisseurs of political issues say it is more about demagogue than those in the first plan have national interests.

Muhamet Haliti, former MPs in some parliamentary compositions, says it is reality that Albanians themselves gathered into a party, without a coalition with Macedonian parties, cannot make the government even Macedonians who cannot form governments without Albanian parties because, he says, Northern Macedonia is society and multiethnic state based on the Constitutions.

Halili sees nothing wrong with such a coalition if, as he says, it is built on clear programming principles.

If such a coalition is done on the basis of programming principles, I think there is no difference whether it will be made before or after the elections. I consider pre-election coalitions more stable because they are based on clear programming principles. I don't think there's anything negative why we have a coalition between a Macedonian party and an Albanian, as such coalitions are even behind any election process. Reasons against pre-election coalitions are degogic that allegedly with post-election coalitions condition Macedonian parties, and so on”, Halili says.

He considers such coalitions could be expanded with the other Macedonian party, V. MRO-DPMNE, if subjects harmonise their programmes and previously report the electorate what their goals are and not in campaigns come up with big promises, which silence government accession.

I consider that such pre-election coalitions should be made even with the VMRO-DPMNE, if the programming definitions match. In this case the situation will be clear what the pre-election coalition parties will take on within an election cycle of”, says former delegation Muhamet Halili.

But, some other connoisseurs of political issues say the pre-election coalition could bring disappointment in the ranks of the two communities, urged by other parties, who to defend their positions accuse a different one against such a coalition.

There may be, for example, resistance in some of the country's electoral areas for such a coalition, but also in part of the Albanian electorate, which does not prefer or refuse to go into a coalition with another ethnic bloc. At the moment it is hard to predict developments, since it is the first time such a thing happens, the consequences are possible”, says Djordje Spasov, former deputes and political affairs connoisseur.

He believes the coalition has more achieved by these two parties to gain votes than for any other purpose.

“The Besa movement, according to some research and analysis, can bring up to three deputies to the electoral unit number six, so that the coalition can have a positive effect on the number of MPs won by the coalition, which is led by LSDM “, Spasov says.

LSDM leader Zoran Zaev had declared days earlier that the party he is running is no longer a Macedonian party, but a multiethnic party. V The MRO-DPMNE has ruled out the possibility of a coalition with an Albanian party in these elections, but without excluding the possibility of a post-election coalition if it wins in the April 12th elections.