Ana Pavlovska – Daneva, a former high level SDSM party official, criticized party leader Zoran Zaev for his announcement to greatly expand the size of the cabinet. Zaev is expected to create numerous new Government departments in an attempt to satisfy both the Alterantive party, whose votes he desperately needs in the Parliament, and his other small coalition partners who are growing restless.

Functional, developed countries have small Governments. At the start of the Zaev term we had 26 ministers and 15 departments. Now we have 16 departments with 20 ministers. It is still too much. The Government could be slimmed down to 12 or 13, Daneva told TV24. Daneva broke with Zaev, mainly over his policy of appeasement toward Bulgaria.

Zaev is planning to create a Diaspora Ministry for the Alternative party, and will then likely create a number of new ministries for other parties who have a similar number of seats in Parliament (Alternative has 4) but hold no or few departments. The Alternative party is expected to grab a total of three Government departments, including the powerful Healthcare Ministry.