Serbian Interior Minister and leader of the Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS) Ivica Dacic stated on Friday that the Ministry of Energy would be merged with the department of infrastructure and that Milutin Mrkonjic will be appointed as the new department's minister.

“Respecting the principle agreed on by G17 Plus and SPS, the only realistic and possible option is for the energy department to be merged with infrastructure, and it is only logical that Mrkonjic should remain the minister in this sector,” Dacic told reporters.

He added that this does not imply that SPS has a negative opinion of the work done by Minister of Mining and Energy Petar Skundric, but that the party simply does not wish to pose an obstacle to the government reshuffle.

Dacic noted that the quality of the reshuffle could have been even better had the competent bodies agreed to adopt the principle on a thorough re-examination of relations and change of departments regardless of their membership in the moment of signing of the coalition agreement.

The minister noted that his party supports the reshuffle and that after its conclusion, the government's goals need to be defined and the government should then state what can realistically be done in the last year of its mandate.