February 13 (SeeNews) - North Macedonia's prime minister Dimitar Kovacevski has submitted to parliament a proposal to reshuffle his cabinet, the government said.
The change will see the entry of Alliance of Albanians (AA) party in the cabinet, the party said.
The prime minister is proposing new ministers of justice, health, defence and information society and administration, as well as new deputy ministers of defence, justice, agriculture, health, education and science, and forestry and water management, the government said in a press release on Saturday.
The Alliance of Albanians party will have three ministers and two deputy ministers in the new cabinet, Arben Taravari, president of the AA party, told a news conference streamed on his Facebook profile on Friday.
The Alternativa party is exiting from the government with the new changes, Afrim Gashi, the party's president, said on Sunday in a Facebook post.
The parliament is expected to vote on the new government proposal on February 13, local media reported.
To be approved, the new government needs to be backed by at least 61 of 120 members of parliament. Kovacevski's SDSM, together with its partners, now controls 67 seats in the unicameral Assembly. AA has eight representatives in the parliament, whereas Alternativa has four.
In early 2022, Alternativa helped the ruling SDSM to form a majority in parliament for a new cabinet led by Kovacevski after the resignation of Zoran Zaev as prime minister. Besa, a junior partner in the previous coalition led by Zaev, withdrew its support for the new SDSM-led cabinet.