Parliament elected Talat Xhaferi as Minister of Defense, Fatmir Besimi as Deputy Prime Minister for European Affairs and Tahir Hani as Minister of Local Government at its session Monday. The mini government reshuffle affected only ministers from the ranks of BDI considering now former Deputy Prime Minister for European Affairs Teuta Arifi and Local Government Minister Nevzat Bejta resigned as MPs in order to run for mayors of Tetovo and Gostivar respectively.

Opposition PDSH demanded that not just the ministers but also BDI leader Ali Ahmeti should resign.

In the absence of the Macedonian opposition bloc in Parliament, only Dostoinstvo leader Stojance Angelov countered the proposal of appointing Talat Xhaferi as minister of defense, urging the MPs of VMRO-DPMNE not to vote for the former commander of the NLA (the paramilitary organization of the ethnic Albanian insurgents during the conflict of 2001).

Prime Minister Gruevski briefly explained why Xhaferi, Besimi and Hani should be the new government ministers and stated that the biographies of the new ministers had been provided to the MPs.