Daniel Braun, the official representative of KAS, opened the event. 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, Alliance for Albanians, 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 to the candidates during this training, the President of the Alliance for Albanians, Ziadin Sela, stressed that the party feels responsible in selecting candidates because it is very important to provide the right leadership for the municipalities, and increase the quality of life of the citizens. According to Sela, the Alliance for Albanians’ commitment will be proper decentralization of power, with a special emphasis on fiscal decentralization and health.
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. Neritan Sejamini, from the University of Tirana, held a training session on a variety of topics related to political communication, public speaking, policy-making and campaigning.
