SDSM leader Venko Filipche has proposed the mayor of Centar Municipality, Goran Gerasimovski, as the party's new deputy leader. "SDSM is getting stronger. I am pleased to inform the membership that Goran Gerasimovski will be proposed as SDSM's new deputy leader," Filipche announced, saying Gerasimovski had earned the trust of citizens through dedicated and responsible work.

The move is internal party reshuffling - routine stuff for a party that, after losing power, is looking for a new face and new energy. Gerasimovski is one of the few SDSM names still holding an executive post in the capital, which makes him the logical pick when the party wants to show it still has people the voters actually elected.

The question hanging over every appointment like this is whether the new title comes with new substance. A deputy-leader post in an opposition party is a title that's easy to hand out but hard to live up to - especially now, as SDSM tries to claw its way back into the game through the fight over the Electoral Code and the amendments in parliament.

For the SDSM voter, the real test isn't who sits where in the party hierarchy, but whether the party has anything to offer beyond new arrangements of familiar faces. Internal rotations create a sense of movement inside the party - but whether that movement translates into something a voter can recognize from the outside remains to be seen.