Reshuffle in 100 steps – upgraded and expanded

As in Spanish TV shows where the characters and plots are constantly changing, so in the end almost no one remembers who the main characters in the first episodes were, the domestic political scene also entertains the audience with various guesses about staff changes. Meanwhile, two seasons changed, and what was announced as a reshuffle began to look like an upgrade – to the advisory team of the prime minister

Prime Minister Zoran Zaev announced a government reshuffle around February 20,  just two months after he made his first intervention in his cabinet – then because of the vacant seats during the local elections, the takeover of the Ministry of Health and the departure of the Alliance of Albanians from ‘Ilindenska’. Nearly three months have passed since that grand announcement, in which the reconstruction has become a public (obscure) topic, gaining abstract dimensions. In reality, however, the political conditions in relation to the moment drastically changed when Zaev announced that there were all officials in his team – who know and make efforts; who do not know, but they try to learn; but also those who neither know, nor try to learn…
From this time distance, probably, almost no one remembers how the story of the refreshing of the executive branch started. Did it start from the officials who do not know and do not try to learn, or the need to expand the parliamentary majority? Or perhaps from the intention to make a certain staff cut before the first anniversary of the change of power, and at a time when the new government is no longer so immune to reactions to public dissatisfaction, and when there is no longer room to justify past mistakes with the failings of its predecessors.
Just like in those Spanish TV shows, where the persons and characters are constantly changing and plots and intrigues are being developed, so at the end almost no one remembers who were the main heroes and villains in the first episodes the domestic political scene also entertains the audience with various guesses about staff changes. Meanwhile, two seasons have changed, in the end what was announced as a reshuffle of the executive function in the executive power, started looking like an upgrade – to the prime ministers’ advisory team.
As VMRO-DPMNE had a programme called “Rebirth in hundred steps”, which then became “upgraded and expanded”, now the staffing of the prime minister could be included in a platform that would be called “reconstruction in 100 steps – upgraded and extended “. For, if Nikola Gruevski as prime minister needed at least four years to carry out the alleged revival, then Zaev, if he continues with this pace, may need more than four months to ventilate his ministerial and managerial environment.
Until this happens, it may be necessary for three seasons to change and half of the “audience” to go on holidays. Therefore, the upgrading of its advisory team – on all possible topics in the field of nature and society, as if it was moving with the speed of light. Thus, a new and even controversial prime ministerial adviser – such as “he does not know, but he tied” – comes to light every day – with whose generals, qualifications and past work the public deals, while more managerial positions in important institutions, such as SEC or Anti-Corruption Commission, are vacant.
No less effective than the upgrade is the process of enlarging the majority in parliament. In addition, any supporters of the “regime” and critics of SDSM in the past are elected for new partners. If the enlargement continues with this rhythm, the opposition queue in the legislature can become wider for the parliamentary opposition. What else can be expected when everyone wants to enter the government, but nobody wants to get out of it. That’s why the government reshuffle goes much harder than upgrading and expanding.
In fact, the government reshuffle, as a term, contains within itself a qualitative element. Therefore, when politics is discussed in the reconstruction of the government, it should mean undertaking human resources changes in order to have more capable and more competent personnel to take over the ministerial departments and the leading positions in the state institutions in order to more effectively implement the policies of the governing party. Upgrading and expanding are, moreover, more quantitative terms. In the political sense, however, their application can be risky – when it runs on unstable foundations. In this case, such a foundation can be considered a ruling coalition that is being upgraded on the basis of various political appetites and interests, rather than programme and ideology.

Aleksandra M. Mitevska