The leader of the opposition SDSM, Venko Filipče, used the party congress to unveil a new platform that names education, health and energy as the pillars of a new development policy. A message of fresh responsibility - but also a reminder that promises come easy when you're not sitting in a government chair.

The platform offers the recognisable social-democratic vocabulary: fair taxation, higher wages, a fight against prices, strong anti-corruption mechanisms and new chances for the young. On energy, it announces investments in domestic production, transmission grids, gas infrastructure and renewables - with the argument that countries dependent on energy imports are exposed to serious risks.

Among the announcements is a new anti-corruption law built on the vetting of all elected and appointed officials, with a full check on the origins of their assets. It sounds ambitious. It sounded ambitious back when the same party was in power, too.

And here lies the test for any opposition platform: why weren't these priorities solved while SDSM held power for years? Education, health and anti-corruption are no new discoveries - they're the same promises we hear from every party, on every side, at every election. The platform looks good on the congress stage. Whether it looks the same from the perspective of a voter who remembers the previous terms - that's another question.