Macedonia's New 'Opposition' Ministers to Take Oaths

After several breached deadlines, Macedonia's warring parties on Friday reached an agreement on the appointment of several interim ministers and deputies from the ranks of the opposition.

The appointments were envisaged in the EU-brokered crisis agreement reached this summer that foresees several reforms being undertaken before early elections in April.

To ensure that Nikola Gruevski's ruling VMRO DPMNE party cannot rig the April elections, the opposition led by the Social Democrats won the right to appoint the new Interior Minister as well as the new Minister of Social Policy and Labour.

The opposition will also appoint a new deputy Finance Minister, a deputy Information Society and Administration Minister and a deputy Agriculture Minister.

The most important of these positions is the Interior Ministry, which will be run by Oliver Spasovski, the opposition Social Democrats' secretary general.

Spasovski is a law graduate from Macedonia's state law faculty. He started his career in 2000 as an intern in a lawyer's firm. From 2001 to 2005, he was advisor to the mayor of the northeastern town of Kumanovo. From 2008 to 2011 he was secretary general of Kumanovo municipality.

Spasovski served two four-year terms as an MP from the Social Democrats, from 2006 to 2014, before assuming the post of secretary general in the party. His biography notes that he speaks English and French.

Frosina Remenski, the Social Democrats' vice president, will be leading the Ministry of Social Policy and Labour, which the opposition has been pinpointing as a vital arena for the ruling party to engage in blackmailing voters in elections.

Remenski holds a PhD from Skopje state university and specialized in international...