Several small Macedonian political parties are understood to be about to join the Social Democrat-led government as part of a planned cabinet reshuffle.

Prime Minister Zoran Zaev’s ruling coalition, made up of his Social Democratic Union of Macedonia (SDSM) and the ethnic Albanian Democratic Union for Integration (DUI), currently has a narrow majority in the parliament. Broadening the coalition will ensure more support for the government’s reform agenda. Candidates for new ministers and deputy ministers will be known by the end of the week.

One of the parties expected to join the coalition is a faction that was previously part of the ethnic Albanian party Besa. The party won five seats in the parliament in the December 2016 general election and initially planned to join the government of the SDSM and DUI, but later changed its mind. Then the party split into two factions.

One faction of Besa, led by Afrim Gashi, will become part of the governing majority in the parliament and will join the government by taking the top position at the culture ministry, local media reported on May 16. The name of the candidate for minister will be announced later.

"Even though MPs from Besa have so far supported the reform agenda of the majority in the parliament and the government, we responded to the prime minister's request to become part of his cabinet," Besa faction leader Gashi was cited by Fokus.

The reason for the decision is the party’s intention to further support the reform agenda, the process of resolving the name dispute with Greece, the launch of EU membership talks and Macedonia’s Nato membership, Gashi underlined.

Zaev also said that the new coalition partners will include the ethnic Albanian Democratic Party of Albanians (DPA) and Union of Roma in Macedonia party of Amdi Bajram, which was previously a coalition partner of VMRO-DPMNE, which is now in opposition. DPA won two seats in the parliament in the last election. Bajram’s party will not receive a ministerial post.

Zaev said on April 5 that talks on the restructuring of the government should be completed by the end of the month, but the process took longer.

The issue of the reshuffle was raised after Justice Minister Bilen Saliji from the DUI  resigned in March following public criticism over a case concerning a four-year-old boy, who died two years ago after being hit by a car.