08/08/2006
SKOPJE, Macedonia -- Prime Minister-designate Nikola Gruevski is expected to present the members of his cabinet on Friday (11 August), according to media reports. On Monday, Gruevski met with deputy leader of the Democratic Party of Albanians (DPA), Menduh Thaci. They agreed that DPA members would get four ministerial posts -- education, health, culture and ecology -- in addition to four deputy ministerial seats and one deputy prime minister post.
Also Monday, members of the Party of Democratic Prosperity joined protests staged by the ethnic Albanian Democratic Union of Integration, blocking roads in Kumanovo, Debar, Struga and Ohrid. Neither party was invited to join the new ruling coalition, led by Gruevski's VMRO-DPMNE. (Dnevnik, Vecer - 08/08/06; MIA, Makfax, A1 TV, Telma TV - 07/08/06)