Assembly voted new staffing solutions

With 65 votes in favor, 15 against and no restrained, the Assembly voted this afternoon Azir Aliu as the new health minister in the post of Arburn Taravari who recently resigned as minister after leaving the government coalition. Whereas, with « 65 » votes in favor and 10 votes against the Assembly, the Assembly elected Albrim Hoxha as Deputy Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Economy.

Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski earlier in the explanation of the Aziri proposal that he believed his energy and knowledge would bring a new dimension to the management of the health system. The prime minister said in his explanation for Hoxha’s proposal that he is a young but serious man who knows what the field looks like. He believes he will give strong energy and added that the minister will be strong and will contribute to agriculture to finally get a systemic framework and vision of the future.

Lawmakers from the government said during the debate that Aliu was not an appropriate staff to head the health sector. They asked how a specialist in informatics that did not make changes to his area would successfully manage a complex system such as healthcare. While lawmakers from the government said there was a chance that Aliu would do well in managing this department even though it does not come from the sector. They emphasized that in the past we have had many health experts who have had the opportunity to lead this sector, but it has not always been shown to be compatible health education or health expertise with health management.

Alliance for Albanians MP Halil Snapche noted that Prime Minister Mickoski should express his gratitude to recent Minister of Health Arben Taravari for what he said, good management of the tragedy in Kocani.

– The Alliance for Albanians, after a year of rule, cannot fulfill its promise and therefore decided to return to the citizens and go into opposition. We are a party where we cannot blackmail us and our interest of citizens, national and state interest is primarily. We did the same last year. We decided to go into opposition, bring about change, the changes came but after a year of rule we cannot boast publicly, I will confirm that we had no success in the government and return where the people were so that we could realize our program. The first thing to do is express publicly thanks to Mr. Taravari. That would be good because of the good management of the tragedy in Kocani, which could have destabilized in the country and Arben Taravari has a great service for what he did in this case. Taravari helped you. You had to go out here and tell you Arben Taravari for the contribution you gave, but you didn’t do this – he said.

The bunch asked the prime minister whether the proposal for a candidate for health minister is his proposal or from VLL.

– Mr. Prime Minister, the new candidate is your personal proposal or is it a proposal for a VLL? Why am I asking this question? Because it is very important for the public to know. I know the person better than you and you who are here. Knowing him, I am convinced that this person will not go after the memory of Arben Fetai. Arben Fetai only makes a schism. He did so when he was in Vetvendosje, and when he was in the Alliance for Albanians when we were with Ziadin Sela and he was doing so. The proposal you have proposed as Health Minister are the other one to be the other one with Izet Mexhiti, Bilal Kasami or Zekiria Ibrahimi. I guarantee you about this. But if you insist that it is your personal proposal, but on the VLIN, then I did not know this person well. With this person at the age of 15, I have traveled to international conferences, we have worked together on scientific papers – said Snapche.

Bekim Joku, an MP of « Vln », said Aliu was a pure political figure.

– Arben Taravari was obliged to resign. Did not resign for moral reasons or something else. Arben Taravari was expelled from the government, while he began working with DUI and Ali Ahmeti. Taravari had hidden meetings for co -operation with DUI and was therefore obliged by Vlnli before the act escaped from the government and the government, as there was no place in that government anymore. Azir Aliu is a proposal on the VLL based on the agreement we have since the beginning of this mandate with Prime Minister Mickoski and today he presents it as a political entity. Aliu remained on that line in the logic of what was the agreement that was initial and did not go to DUI, did not go to corruption and cancer. DUI for Arben Taravari was cancer. Now this man, these associates go to the challenger of this cancer. Azir Aliu is not the one who loved the cancer, but Taravari and some of his associates. Aliu is a pure political figure. He is not related to his professionalism, his morality, the dignity and integrity of this political person. Aliu remained faithful to political and moral values ​​- said Joku.

According to VMRO-DPMNE MP Dafina Stojanovska, Aliu has a chance to do well in managing the Ministry of Health.

– I know Azir Aliu the roots. His family in Gostivar is respected, authoritative. When you know a man from where he comes from, you certainly gain your impression or increase the expectations of this great challenge that stands in front of Aliu. As a doctor of information science, here is today or tomorrow to take over the helm of one of the most dynamic and most problematic departments in our government, which is the health sector. From personal experience, the Health Department since the independence of the Republic of Macedonia suffers the most from the frequent changes of the ministers who led this department. Some repeated, some left a good trace, some did not have time to prove enough, and so he said that the challenge that Mr. Azir Aliu accepts. Knowing him as a person and his origin from a renowned Gostivar family and his rich gray, I think he has a chance to do well in management. Although analyzing backwards we had many health experts who had the opportunity to lead this sector, but not always proved to be compatible health education or health expertise with health management – said Stojanovska.

Amar Mecinovic, an MP of Levica, noted that Aliu would become part of a government that except for authoritarian, but beyond her rule as if managing as a concessionaire on an agreement aimed at profit and not care for our citizens.

– The gentleman will manage a key portfolio, but which is intertwined with the influences of almost all pores of social management. And since they always present themselves as managers, not as ideologically targeted champions of the departments to manage, in the end their ministry ends with defining their authority and they are not always to blame for the state of the department they were supposed to. Mr. Aliu will vote by a majority without compromise fighting unions by demonizing them and reducing their role – Mecinovic said.

Diana Toska, a European front lawmaker, noted that he had shown no concrete result or some major reform while led the Ministry of Information Society and Administration.

– Big projects remain only on paper. Digitization was only a slogan and after still we didn’t have that work. The question is very simple how we can pretend as an IT specialist who has not made changes to his area will manage a complex system such as health. Health is not an area of ​​administration. It is a sector that requires great management where it is about people’s lives. Some may say whether it cannot be learned and adapted to the health sector? I am not saying that we are not talking about administrative work where you can learn quickly. This is one feature where every decision has an impact on people’s lives. These things are very important for people’s lives and we cannot have political experiments. Health requires more than digitization. It requires greater work and work with patients – said Toska.

SDSM parliamentary group coordinator Oliver Spasovski noted that the biggest problem of the health sector is precisely the frequent change of the Minister.

– Many of the public comments, the stories and writings are that the biggest problem of the health sector is precisely the change of ministers so often for a short period of time and is the biggest problem for the state and the citizens and as a system in which very little and nearly moving at all in the past 30 years. Although someone will say « yes, there is certainly some progress » and is right. The state is not the same that was in the 90th year and in 2025, day and year it changes. All that is required by the citizens in terms of these messages of change, then for me it can not be concluded that a minister from the Government led by SDSM can be a hope for change in 2025 when someone else takes power in his own hands. If all these negatives, findings, for notes, criticisms are made for the time of the rule of the previous government, then I do not see how we can bring the same staffing solutions that were then and today to be health ministers. If we talk about Aliu’s professional background, there are no objections and his biography cannot be challenged – said Spasovski.

In the end, Mickoski expressed gratitude to lawmakers who participated in the debate that commented on proposals, about political reality, political developments for the new government.

– Everyone has an opinion on their own opinion and attitude even when they do not speak the truth. That’s how this opposition may have decided to function in parliament no matter which part of the opposition – whether this first, central or that end. At the end of the day, elections will come in four months and the citizens will say whether what you are saying is so or maybe what the government is doing is the contrary to what you are talking about. I don’t think that’s the way you talk. I think you do not speak the truth and that it is contrary to the feeling in public. But okay, left to your conscience, of human responsibility, moral capacity to speak what you are talking about. I think that doesn’t bring you points. I think it takes you. But okay. You need to understand that for one thing to feel the citizens, they need to say credible people – said Mickoski.

The co-ordinator of Bekim Joku’s parliamentary group, representing Hoxha, said he was a new generation of politicians, that he was a 37-year-old lawyer who had previously worked in the local self-government in Struga, where he was fired by Mayor Spas Merko. Juku also said that Hoxha was a journalist, was involved in media, public policy, and that he was coming from a rural town and that he was familiar with the needs of agriculture and the deputy minister.

Azir Aliu is a graduate electrical engineer and doctor of information science who currently serves as a full professor at the Faculty of Computer Science and Technology at the University of SEE in Tetovo. Aliu was Minister of Information Society and Administration in 2023 and 2024, and, according to the biography submitted, was in other senior and responsible positions. Aliu is part of the Alliance for Albanians, which has remained worthy after the resignation of May 15, this year at Arben Taravari and his decision to go into the opposition.

The biography of Albrim Hoxha states that he is a journalist with many years of work experience and has acquired his education at the Faculty of Law at the State University of Tetovo.