New floods, but this time round civic, are announced by opposition SDSM with the start of the spring. Although admitting the atmosphere is very difficult for organizing protests, SDSM vice chairman Gordan Georgiev says the government is going to face massive protests this spring, Vreme reports.

"Rallies, protests and strikes are a legitimate form of expression in any normal democratic society. Unfortunately, Macedonia under VMRO-DPMNE’s rule is neither a normal nor a democratic society. On the contrary, the infiltration of the party-police state in the entire social fabric fills people with fear and distress of unseen proportions. In such an atmosphere in which people are discredited, bugged and humiliated, it is only natural for a great many of them to be frightened and passive,” Georgiev says.

Therefore, SDSM’s primary objective in this period, according to Georgiev, will be to liberate people from fear and encourage them to stand up and talk publicly about all problems troubling them.