Mickoski Reshuffles the Government: Six Ministers Are Out, But If They Did a Good Job - Why Replace Them?

Parliament is debating the government reshuffle today, and Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski justified it with familiar rhetoric: „The government is not a place for comfort, but for results." Nice words - but behind them hides what every reshuffle actually means: swapping armchairs.

The changes hit six ministries. Out go the ministers for justice (Igor Filkov), health (Azir Aliu), agriculture (Cvetan Tripunovski), social policy (Fatmir Limani), culture (Zoran Ljutkov) and one minister without portfolio. New names take their place - among them Jeton Šašivari on justice, Sašo Klekovski on health and Đoko Velkovski on social policy.

Mickoski defends the reshuffle as a principle: „The principle of accountability applies equally to everyone." He also boasted of results - the culture budget reportedly grew from 768 million to over 1.07 billion denars, and over 15 billion denars were distributed for agriculture from July 2024 onward.

But let's ask the question every citizen is thinking: if these ministers worked as well as they're now bragging, why replace them? And if they didn't, why did they stay in office for so long? A reshuffle always sells itself as a refresh, but it's often just a new arrangement of the same chairs among the same people.

The opposition has already called the move „theater for the people." And that's the real test - not how many ministers get replaced today, but whether the new ones will bring something different for the ordinary citizen, or just take over the same armchairs with new names on the door. The results, as the prime minister himself says, are what will speak - but we only see them once the cameras go off.