Macedonian PM-designate cites economy, fighting corruption as top priorities

16/08/2006

Macedonian Prime Minister designate Nikola Gruevski announced the members of his cabinet on Tuesday, citing economic recovery and fighting corruption and organised crime as top priorities.

(MIA, Makfax - 16/08/06; AP, Makfax - 15/08/06)

Prime Minister-designate Nikola Gruevski (centre) met with NSDP representatives to formalise the cabinet on Monday (14 August). [Tomislav Georgiev]

More than two weeks after being given the mandate to form Macedonia's new government, Prime Minister designate Nikola Gruevski submitted his proposed cabinet to parliament Tuesday (15 August).

Gruevski's VMRO-DPMNE came in first in the 5 July elections in Macedonia, with 32.5 per cent of the vote, entitling it to 44 seats in the 120-member parliament.

After weeks of consultations, the VMRO-DPMNE leader said the new Macedonian government would include representatives of four other parties -- the Democratic Party of Albanians (DPA), the New Social Democratic Party (NSDP), the Socialist Party (SP) and the Liberal Party (LP).

In addition to the prime minister's post, VMRO-DPMNE will take ten other cabinet seats. The party's Zoran Stavrevski and Gabriela Konevska-Trajkovska have been nominated as deputy prime ministers in charge of economic affairs and EU integration, respectively. Imer Selmani of Arben Xhaferi's DPA has been named as Gruevski's deputy in charge of the implementation of the Ohrid Framework Agreement.

The fourth deputy prime ministerial seat goes to Zivko Jankulovski of the NSDP, who will be responsible for the agriculture and education sectors.

VMRO-DPMNE representatives Trajko Slavevski and Antonio Milososki will head the finance and foreign affairs ministries, respectively, while Gordana Jankulovska has been tapped for the post of interior minister. In addition, the party will also head the justice, local self-government and the transport and communications ministries. Two foreigners of Macedonian origin, Gligor Taskovic and Vele Samac, will serve as ministers without portfolio in charge of foreign investments.

Besides serving as deputy prime minister, Selmani also is set to head the health ministry. The DPA, which won 11 parliamentary seats in the July elections, also has been given the ministries of ecology, culture and education, to be headed by Imer Aliu, Ilirijan Bekiri and Sulejman Rushiti, respectively.

In addition to one deputy prime ministerial post, Tito Petkovski's NSDP, which has seven representatives in the legislature, has been given two ministerial seats. Lazar Elenovski will be defence minister, and Vera Rafajlovska the economy minister.

Aco Spasovski of Ljubisav Ivanov's SP has been nominated as minister of agriculture and Ljupco Meskov of Stojan Andov's LP as minister of labour and social policy.

Parliament is scheduled to vote on the proposed cabinet on 25 August, when Gruevski will also present the government's programme.

Ahead of that session, the prime minister-designate outlined the economy and the fight against organised crime and corruption as top priorities.

"The government's priority is economic recovery," Gruevski said. "This is going to be a long, difficult and painful journey, but we have a team of able and honest people who will give (their) maximum effort."

Commenting on the continuing roadblocks staged by the ethnic Albanian Democratic Union for Integration (DUI) to protest their exclusion from the government, Gruevski told Macedonia's A1 television on Tuesday that there was no legal provision obliging him to include Ali Ahmeti's party in his cabinet.

"According to the laws and the constitution of Macedonia, I composed the government, had dialogue with all parties, including DUI, and there is no obligation in the laws or the constitution that I have to include DUI in government's composition," Makfax news agency quoted Gruevski as saying.

Gruevski, 35, who served as finance minister in former Prime Minister Ljubco Georgievski's cabinet, has been VMRO-DPMNE leader since May 2003.