The training was mainly focused on topics related to capacity building of politicians at the local level, as well as topics related to communication with the public.
At the opening of the training, the official representative of KAS, Daniel Braun, and the president of Alternativa, Afrim Gashi, addressed the audience.
In his speech, Braun stressed that local politics is not “low politics”, it is in fact politics that establishes a direct contact with the citizens, with their needs and expectations. This requires empathy, a possibility to offer solutions, but, above all, good communication skills to successfully manage local policies.
According to Braun, local politics in North Macedonia is facing many challenges at the local level, and in particular, as recent months have shown, infrastructural, environmental and health policies need to be created. These is why the Konrad Adenauer Foundation in North Macedonia organizes trainings for active, but also interested politicians at the local level, so that in the future they can commit to these challenges. These trainings are organized in cooperation with the political partner, Alternativa, which KAS has already established relations with. In the end, Braun said that in this way, as a foundation, they were happy to be able to contribute to local democracy and its professionalization.
In his address, Gashi expressed his gratitude to the foundation for organizing this event and expressed confidence that the further development of mutual cooperation will add value to the democratic life of North Macedonia.
Marko Pankovski, from the Institute for Democracy “Societas Civilis” Skopje (IDSCS), opened the working session of the training, and in his address, discussed the country’s local self-government, giving a brief historical overview, and outlining the legal framework of local self-government, the competencies and positioning of the local self-government units, the electoral model for local elections, as well as the municipalities in times of Covid-19. Bekim Beliqi, from the Faculty of Political Sciences in Pristina, provided input on several different topics related to political communication, public speaking, creating political strategies and campaigning.
