The new SDSM – DUI Government will cut a fifth of all public sector employees, Zoran Zaev announced during today’s press conference with Ali Ahmeti.

Zaev said that he will abolish positions in the Government of ministers with no departments – which were often used for distinguished promoters of foreign investment opportunities in Macedonia or smaller ethnic minority members like the Roma. But the cuts will go deeper than that – a full 20 percent of all public sector employees will be cut, including among the notoriously dysfunctional ethnic quota hires.

Zaev said that the cuts will be done through merging departments and expediting services the public administration offers. Ethnic Albanian hires through the so-called “framework program”, named after the 2001 Ohrid peace treaty, will be fired unless suitable jobs can be found for them – thousands of these employees currently collect salaries but do not have job assignments.