Skopje, 26 January 2024 (MIA) – At a handover ceremony in Parliament on Friday afternoon, Jovan Mitreski took over the post of Speaker of Parliament from outgoing Speaker Talat Xhaferi.

In a media statement after the ceremony, outgoing Speaker Xhaferi, who is set to assume the post of caretaker Prime Minister, wished Mitreski a successful term.

He stressed that he doesn’t doubt that Mitreski will appropriately respond to his new duties and responsibilities.

“I congratulate his election and I have no doubts that he will appropriately respond to the function, responsibility and the duty that comes from that post… I informed him over the program activities, of what should be in the sphere of Parliament’s activities for this year, regarding the existing laws everything has been prepared, signed and delivered on time. Over the operational and planning things, the laws have been drafted, and they can begin to be realized. Regarding the conditions, we have a short timeframe until the official call for elections, but that is in the power of the president,” said Xhaferi.

Xhaferi stressed that with the new Rules of Procedure, they have managed to create the necessary conditions to prevent problematic situations from happening “as they did in the past few years”.

“I am glad that we had a chance in these almost seven years to experience all the events that occurred, with the hope that they never happen again. I believe that we worked on that. With the new Rules of Procedure, we have created the preconditions that will prevent such situations and ensure calmer waters during the next term,” said Xhaferi.

New Speaker Jovan Mitreski assessed his cooperation with Xhaferi as good and noted that after the events of April 2017, a normal functioning of Parliament had been made possible.

“I think during our term we managed to achieve and enable a normal functioning of Parliament, we also managed to mutually and in parallel with the management, the vice-presidents, whips, the secretary general, the deputy secretary general, to also increase the professionalism in the parliamentary staff, and to ensure their independence. Of course, we concluded this recently with the Jean Monnet process and by reaching an agreement with which we managed to reach a consensus over the adoption of a new Rules of Procedure. We did this also in large part due to the persistence of Speaker Xhaferi and the entire management of the Parliament,” said Mitreski.

Mitreski thanked the lawmakers for entrusting him with the position of Speaker of Parliament.

“I want to thank the MPs for their trust. Of course, I remain open for cooperation with those MPs who didn’t give me their trust, I can say that I am extending my hand to them, as long as I feel, as long as I see and hear that this is exclusively in the interest of the citizens in the state, because, ultimately we are elected by the citizens, and the citizens and the state should be our top priority,” said Mitreski.

Photo: MIA