The opposition SDSM is once again fighting its fiercest battle - against itself. The platform "12.05 Conversations About the Future" has publicly called on Venko Filipche to step down as party leader, and Filipche has hit back with a label: "ZNAM 2.0" - a reference to ZNAM, the party founded by defectors from SDSM.

Behind the platform are people with long party résumés: Igor Ivanovski, Andrej Petrov, Emilijan Stankovikj, Gordan Georgiev, Kjurkchiev and sitting MP Slavjanka Petrovska. Their message is that SDSM's ratings are at an "existential minimum" and that unless the current leader goes, the party will disappear. They insist they won't form a new party, won't run on independent lists, and that no businessman is bankrolling them. They've announced another gathering on Saturday.

Ivanovski went further. He claims there is a "fully thought-out and agreed policy" between the government and the opposition, in which Hristijan Mickoski "buys time" and Filipche "buys freedom". That's a heavy accusation, made without any evidence on the table - just like the response from the other side.

Filipche says he met these people one by one and that the platform is a new ZNAM. "These are people who held very senior party positions and stayed silent when the first ZNAM was being formed. And now they want to take over the party in a putsch," he said. He points to a four-year mandate from more than 10,000 members and asks why the platform surfaces precisely when SDSM is publishing allegations of lobbying in the prime minister's favour and about five new mines. The party called the initiative a distraction, but its response offered no evidence that the platform is linked to the government.

A would-be mediator has also stepped in between the two camps. Former official Esad Rahikj believes neither side has a solution and that they are "stuck in stalemate". His forecast is grim: if this continues, SDSM will go the way of Greece's PASOK. He describes both sides as "like geese in the fog".

That's the heart of it. One side accuses the leader of secretly cooperating with the government; the other accuses the platform of secretly working for the government. And the government? It can simply sit back and watch the opposition burn through its own energy. Who really profits from this war - and will SDSM's members even be asked?