Skopje, 6 June 2024 (MIA) - Very soon the new reform government will be formed, and it will have the basic aim and task to focus on reforms, to move processes forward, so that we, as a country and a society, aren’t sinking in the swamp of political bickering, but are developing our country, said VMRO-DPMNE leader Hristijan Mickoski on Thursday in a media statement after President Gordana Siljanovska-Davkova handed him the mandate for the creation of government.

Mickoski did not want to reveal the names of future ministers, stressing that consultations within the parties and coalitions over proposed government members are to begin Thursday. He said he expects the new government to be formed before the deadline.

“The vote in Parliament can even be done tomorrow, since VMRO-DPMNE has 61 MPs. Formally, we could elect the new government as early as tomorrow. Considering the talks that we’ve had and the coalition that has been formed, then I can say that our challenge is to have a majority that will have the support of two-thirds in Parliament,” Mickoski said.

The prime minister-designate said the two-third majority is necessary since they are planning to restructure the government in line with their platform, which he said has been accepted by their coalition partners, but also because they are planning “an intensive reform cycle especially in the fight against crime and corruption”.

“For this to happen, we need the main pillars – the prosecution and the judiciary – to be liberated from the few partisan prosecutors and judges. This will be done by dissolving two institutions, the Council of Public Prosecutors and the Judicial Council. And for this to happen the appropriate laws have been amended which requires a two-third majority in Parliament,” Mickoski clarified. 

He thanked Siljanovska-Davkova for the mandate and thanked the citizens, which, he said, are the main reason why the country is set to receive a new government.

The VMRO-DPMNE leader highlighted the challenges that the government will solve, noting that the solutions for most of them are contained in the party’s election platform – “Platform 1198”.

“The new government,” he said, “will move things forward in the economy through reforms and a strong investment cycle, since the citizens expect an improvement in their living standard, improvement of the situation in healthcare, education, agriculture”.

At the same time, Mickoski noted that the rule of law will be the new government’s primary guide, something which, he added, “was ignored these seven years”.

“We continued to sink in all ratings and relevant rankings. The perception of crime and corruption is enormous, the citizens feel angry, they feel unsafe. One of the main motives for why they are leaving Macedonia, besides all the bad living conditions, is also the perception of the high level of crime and corruption, and here I am not only referring to the political crime and corruption, although we are responsible for that as politicians, but I am talking about the degree of criminality that we are seeing in the streets of our Macedonia,” Mickoski said.

The prime minister-designate said he is convinced that the new government will be able “to change this reality” and “transform Macedonia into a successful European story – a country that will be the fatherland of all citizens regardless of their ethnicity, political affiliation or non-affiliation”.

On Thursday, President Gordana Siljanovska-Davkova handed the mandate for the formation of a government to Mickoski, whose party won 58 seats in the May 8 parliamentary elections. He now has 20 days to form the country's new government.