Macedonian Prime Minister Reveals New Cabinet

Gruevski’s most trusted ministers will retain their posts, judging by the list of candidate-ministers that the Macedonian premier officially submitted to parliament on Sunday together with his platform for government.

Gordana Jankuloska remains Police Minister while Zoran Stavreski retains his seat as Vice Prime Minister and Finance Minister. Nikola Poposki remains Foreign Minister; Dime Spasov is again the Minister for Labour and Social Policy, while Nikola Todorov remains Health Minister. Mile Janakieski stays in the post of Transport Minister.

Elizabeta Kanceska-Milevska remains Culture Minister and Ivo Ivanovski remains Minister for Information Society.

The most notable shuffle between Gruevski’s VMRO DPMNE and the junior ruling party, the Democratic Union for Integration, DUI, is the switching of places between the Education Ministry and the Defence Ministry.

The outgoing Environment Minister from the DUI ranks, Abdilaqim Ademi, will now be leading the Education Ministry that was previously run by a VMRO DPMNE politician. In return, the DUI leaves the Defence Ministry to the VMRO DPMNE, which plans to appoint seasoned diplomat Zoran Jolevski to the post.

Jolevski,  who was the Macedonian representative in the long-running UN-sponsored ‘name’ talks with Greece, is the most notable VMRO DPMNE newcomer in the cabinet.

The new Environment Minister is Nurhan Izairi from the DUI. The outgoing Education Minister Spiro Ristovski will remain in the government but this time as Deputy Education Minister.

The three other Vice Prime Ministers also remain the same. Vladimir Pesevski will be in charge of economic affairs; Fatmir Besimi will lead European affairs while Musa Xhaferri will be in charge of the...