We were able to restore at least three quarters of the concessions SDSM made to DUI, said VMRO-DPMNE President Hristijan Mickoski, a day after he announced the line-up of the new Government, in which VMRO has a dominant position, unlike the even and even subordinate role SDSM played with regard to DUI in the outgoing Government.

Some circles in the new opposition claimed that we gave away too much power to the VLEN coalition. That is blatantly untrue. SDSM knelt before DUI for seven years, and turned themselves in mere executors of the DUI will. We restored at least three quarters of the positions that they lost. And now they accuse us of giving away too much. Let them have their way, said Mickoski.

SDSM allowed DUI to hold the position of Parliament Speaker, Finance and Foreign Affairs Minister, the departments of Education and Economy, Healthcare was given to a different Albanian partner, and the powerful Deputy Prime Minister Artan Grubi was de-facto Infrastructure Minister and held other various roles. For the last 100 days of the Government, SDSM even gave DUI the office of Prime Minister. Under VMRO, which has a significantly larger number of seats in Parliament than SDSM had, VLEN will keep the Speakership, the Healthcare Ministry, the reformed Welfare and Demographics Ministry and a largely reduced Economy Ministry, as well as other lesser posts.