site.btaSkopje Parliament Elects Mickoski Government

After two days and more than 16 hours of debating, the Parliament of the Republic of North Macedonia voted to back late on Sunday night the government of Hristijan Mickoski. 77 deputies voted for and 26 against the new government.

Mickoski and the ministers of VMRO-DPMNE and the Your Macedonia coalition, the coalition of ethnic Albanian parties VLEN and the ZNAM movement took the oath of office, in which they pronounced the constitutional name of the state, Republic of North Macedonia, and signed the oath sheets.

The MPs of the European Front coalition did not participate in the vote. They left the plenary because of the short list of participants in the debate.

Last to speak in the debate before the election and swearing-in was Mickoski, who said that at the swearing-in he would pronounce "this shameful" [North] to his country's name, but would continue to fight "against injustice".

"Citizens need focus, they need higher standards, higher wages. A peaceful life, a desire to live here in Macedonia. The attacks I have heard these two days boil down to two: the Prespa Treaty and the French proposal [the negotiating framework for resolving the differences with Bulgaria]. This Bulgarian diktat will not pass as long as I am Prime Minister and there will be no changes to the Constitution. As long as I am alive I will correct the injustice. At this moment I am powerless. I will have to say this awkward adjective. You will see what work means. My fight will be every day to not let the citizens down. What I promise is that I will not give up. Our citizens deserve better. In a few hours, the first 100 days of the new government begin. In the first 100 days, we will cut taxes and increase pensions. We are announcing a front against corruption, launching capital infrastructure projects," Mickoski said. 

And while the debate in the past two days VMRO-DPMNE repeated the main commitments in the government programme and attacked the previous government as inadequate, the opposition parties slammed the future government for promises from the election campaign that have not been fulfilled and will not be fulfilled.

The Prespa Treaty, the Treaty of Friendship, Good-Neighbourliness and Cooperation with Bulgaria and European integration were among the highlights of the debate. VMRO-DPMNE accused the previous government of failing to get a date for the start of negotiations with the EU, while SDSM said that there was no concept of European integration in the government programme and that VMRO-DPMNE's promises that the Prespa treaty would be revisited and the country's old constitutional name would be restored, while the treaty with Bulgaria and the negotiating framework would be renegotiated, were empty words.

The highlights in the programme of the new government include European integration, fight against crime and corruption, economic development, balanced regional development, bringing the government closer to the citizens, reducing taxes, increasing pensions and salaries, building good relations with the neighbours and promoting inter-ethnic relations. 

The government has a total of 24 members, including the Prime Minister and five deputy prime ministers. The first deputy prime minister is the leader of the Democratic Movement, which is part of the Vredi Coalition, Izet Medjeti, who will also be minister of environment and ecology. VLEN has one more deputy prime minister, Arben Fetai, who will be responsible for good governance. Hristijan Mickoski's other deputy prime ministers are VMRO-DPMNE deputy chair Aleksandar Nikoloski, who will also be minister for transport, the chairman of the Socialist Party of Macedonia, Ljupcho Dimovski, who will be minister in charge of the political system, and Ivan Stoilkovic of the Democratic Party of Serbs, who takes over the portfolio for inter-community relations.

The other VMRO-DPMNE deputy leaders are also included in the new government: Timco Mucunski will be Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, Vlado Misajlovski Defence Minister and Gordana Dimitrieska - Kocoska Finance Minister.