Macedonian PM-designate proposes 25 ministers for new gov't

Macedonian Prime Minister-designate Zoran Zaev Sunday evening announced his choices for ministers for the new government he has been mandated to form.

The lineup features 25 ministerial nominees from the three coalition partners -- Zaev's Social Democratic Union of Macedonia (SDSM), the Democratic Union for Integration (DUI) and the Alliance for the Albanians, which respectively have 17, six and two nominees.

Among the nominees for key positions are Radmila Shekerinska as defense minister, Nikola Dimitrov as foreign minister, Oliver Spasovski as interior minister, Dragan Tevdovski as finance minister, and Bujar Osmani as vice prime minister in charge of European integration.

"I will forward the proposed composition of the future government together with its program to the parliament as soon as possible," Zaev said after a meeting at his party headquarters.

The new government needs to be approved by the parliament, where the tripartite coalition has a slim majority of 62 seats out of the 120 in total. Negotiations on drawing another party, the Besa Movement, into the alliance have failed.

Parliament Speaker Talat Xhaferi has signaled that he will schedule a session to ponder the lineup in the coming days.

Macedonia has not had a new government since the Dec. 11 parliamentary elections.