SKOPJE - North Macedonia's lawmakers on Sunday approved a new nationalist-dominated government of Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski, whose party won general elections in May banking on voters' anger at the slow pace of European Union integration.

A third vote due to technical issues made the final tally 77 for and 22 against in the 120-seat parliament, where the ruling coalition is composed of Mickoski's VMRO-DPMNE party, the Albanian alliance VLEN/VREDI and ZNAM, an ethnic Macedonian splinter from the Social Democrats (SDSM).

Declaring the session "historic", Mickoski, in his first term as premier, told the lawmakers it was the time to "roll up the sleeves and start solving problems in the country"

Declaring the session "historic", Mickoski, in his first term as premier, told the lawmakers it was the time to "roll up the sleeves and start solving problems in the country".

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He said that his 20-ministry government will not need 100 days to show results in reforms but will start immediately to work to attract new investment, cut taxes and increase pensions and wages.

Opposition MPs voiced doubt in the ability of the new government to fulfill promises from its program, accusing Mickoski of being manipulative and secretive about proposed reforms.

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VMRO-DPMNE has been in the opposition since 2017, when the government of Nikola Gruevski was ousted after the 2016 elections over alleged corruption and replaced by the SDSM-led government.

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Gruevski, a right-wing nationalist who fled the country in 2018 after being sentenced to two years in prison on corruption-related charges, was granted political asylum in Hungary.