Half-way through his government’s four-year mandate, PM Mickoski announces modest reshuffle that make few substantial changes – which opposition dismisses as just ‘theatre’.
Sinisa Jakov Marusic
North Macedonia’s Prime Minister, Hristijan Mickoski. Photo: VMRO DPMNE.
North Macedonia Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski presented his planned reshuffle on Tuesday evening. The main change is the addition of the small Democratic Party of Turks to the government. This party will now have one minister without portfolio and its one MP will increase the government’s strength from 78 to 79 MPs in the 120-seat parliament.
The ruling alliance is still one vote shy of a two-thirds majority, however, so will still need opposition backing for constitutional amendments and other decisions requiring a qualified majority.
Another change is scrapping the post of Deputy PM in charge of good governance. This will now be managed by the Prime Minister’s cabinet directly.
This change comes after the former Deputy PM for good governance, Arben Fetai, resigned in early June after controversy over his prolonged absence from work. Fetai started not showing up at work after he said he had drifted away from his political base, the junior ruling VLEN party.
The reshuffle modestly alters the balance within the ruling coalition. But the main ruling VMRO DPMNE party retains firm control over key centres of power, including the ministries of interior, finance, foreign affairs, defence and education.
The party will give up the Culture and Tourism Ministry as well as Transport. In return, it takes over the Health and Social Policy Ministry and the Demography and Youth Ministry, expanding its control over two of the government’s largest public-service portfolios.
The VLEN party stands to benefit by slightly increasing its influence. VLEN relinquishes the Health and Social Policy, Demography and Youth portfolios, as well as the now-abolished post of deputy prime minister for good governance.
But it takes over the Justice, Culture and Tourism and Inter-Community Relations ministries, while retaining the Economy and Labour, Environment and Physical Planning and European Affairs ministries – gaining it portfolios with slightly more political and symbolic significance.
The third largest government partner, ZNAM, cedes the Justice Ministry to VLEN but in compensation gets Transport as well as keeping the Public Administration Ministry.
The reshuffle also sees Ivan Stoiljkovic, leader of the small Democratic Party of Serbs, switch from the Ministry for Inter-Community Relations to Local Self-Government, while VLEN takes over his former portfolio.
The reshuffle, Mickoksi said, “marks a new phase in the work of the government which will put efficacy, dynamism and delivering results into the focus”. All the changes, he said, are aimed at bringing fresh energy and adding quality to the government’s performance.
The main opposition Social Democrats, who accuse the government of failing to bring the country closer to EU accession, or curb corruption, or revive the economy, were not impressed.
“The government reshuffle is just a theatre aimed at creating an impression that something is changing,” the Social Democrats said after the PM announced the reshuffle.
Mickoski, whose centre-right VMRO DPMNE party came to power in 2024, said the names of the newly proposed ministers will be made official by Friday, when he intends to submit his new proposed cabinet to parliament for a vote.
