The pre-election rhetoric has already heated up. SDSM issued a sharp statement aimed at the ZNAM movement, claiming its only programme is self-interest - and that this programme "is called a pocket". According to the Social Democrats, ZNAM isn't a political party at all but "a satellite of VMRO, an association created and financed by Hristijan Mickoski".

The accusation is heavy and clear: that a political movement is actually an extended arm of the ruling party, disguised as an independent voice. Whether that's so or not is hard to verify from outside - but the dynamic itself is painfully familiar. On the Macedonian political scene, every party claims the other is someone's front, someone's pocket, someone's instrument.

And that's exactly where the trap lies for the voter. While the parties are busy with who is whose satellite, the questions that really weigh on ordinary people - wages, prices, healthcare, emigration - are left aside. Labels are cheap and easy to throw; programmes that solve problems are pricier and harder to write. When a party spends most of its energy proving the other one is fake, it's worth asking - and where is its own programme for the people?