After the mandate holder Hristijan Mickoski received the mandate to form a government on Thursday, and the amendments to the Law on Reorganization of the State Administration were passed in the Parliament on the night between Friday and Saturday, the deadlines for forming the new government are now running.

At the presentation of the mandate, Mickoski announced that the new government will be formed soon and, according to his expectations, it will be formed before the legal deadline. The main goal of the government, as he indicated, will be to address reforms, announcing progress in the economy, a strong investment cycle, and improvements in health, education, and agriculture.

“I am convinced that in the future we will change the reality, we will transform Macedonia into a successful European story, a country that will be the homeland of all citizens regardless of their ethnicity, political affiliation, or non-affiliation, a place that will be a motive and inspiration for those who left to return,” Mickoski said on Thursday.

VMRO-DPMNE held talks with the coalition Vredi and ZNAM about the formation of the government. The division of departments is known, but names have not yet been announced officially.

The new government will have 20 ministries, four more than before. With the amendments to the Law on State Administration, which were passed late on Friday evening in the parliamentary session, the ministries will be reorganized. The amendments provide that the labor segment will be added to the Ministry of Economy, and the energy, mining, and mineral resources section will be under the authority of the new Ministry of Energy. The current Ministry of Labor and Social Policy will grow into the Ministry of Social Policy, Demography, and Youth, and the powers for tourism will be under the new Ministry of Culture, which will be called the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. A Ministry for Digital Transformation will be established, succeeding the previous Ministry of Information Technology and Administration, as well as the Ministry of Sports.

The amendments to the Law on the Organization of the Work of the State Administration were passed with a two-thirds majority and were supported by VMRO-DPMNE, Vredi, and ZNAM, as well as deputies from the European Front. DUI voted for the changes because previously, as informed by VMRO-DPMNE, an agreement was reached to establish an ad-hoc commission in due course that will monitor the fair representation of all ethnic communities in the state administration bodies. The president of this commission, as stated in the announcement, will be proposed by the opposition. Yesterday, the president of the state, Gordana Siljanovska-Davkova, signed the decree for this legal solution.

In a post on Facebook, Siljanovska-Davkova clarified that it is a law passed by a two-thirds majority, which the president, according to Article 75, paragraph (4), is obliged to sign and has no right to veto.

“The law is reformist and it will firstly cancel the parallelism of the competences of many ministries, thus ensuring functionality and responsibility. Secondly, the competences will be (dis)located in the respective ministries, which will rationalize and make their work more effective (Ministry for Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, Ministry of Economy and Labour, Ministry of Energy, Mining and Mineral Resources, Ministry of Social Policy, Demography and Youth, Ministry of Culture and Tourism). Thirdly, our strategic priorities will be institutionalized through the establishment of appropriate ministries (Ministry for European Affairs, Ministry of Digital Transformation). And fourth, the level of social care for the physical and mental health of the nation (Ministry of Sports) will be raised,” according to the Facebook post.

The deadline for forming a government is 20 days after the assignment of the mandate.