Parliament of Macedonia Approved Change in Country’s Name

On the day before the vote, Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Wess Mitchell addressed an open letter to the Macedonian opposition, urging them to support a change in the name of the country. Deputies of the National Assembly of Macedonia, late in the evening on October 19, approved the government’s proposals to begin a process of amending the Constitution regarding the change of the country’s name to Northern Macedonia, the Macedonian Kanal5 reports. 80 deputies out of 120 voted for this decision, 39 deputies voted against. Thus, amending the Constitution was adopted by a minimum number of votes. The decision would not be made if a group of opposition members of the VMRO-DPMNE had not supported the name change. On the day before the vote, US Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Wess Mitchell addressed an open letter to the Macedonian opposition, urging them to support the name change. Russia called this “gross interference” in the internal affairs of Macedonia, inviting them to join the Eurasian Union. Earlier, a name-change referendum was held in Macedonia, but it failed due to low voter turnout. 91, 46 percent of citizens supported the changing of the country’s name to North Macedonia, and at the same time the opportunity to join NATO and start a dialogue on obtaining EU membership. 5.65 percent oppose the name change. Such data gave grounds for Prime Minister Zoran Zaev to bring this issue to the consideration of parliament, threatening it with early elections in case of a vote failure. Parliamentarians still need to hold two votes to make final amendments to the Constitution - by a simple and constitutional majority. Macedonians are being asked to change the name of their country to end a 27-year dispute with Greece. Due to the fact that the name “Macedonia” coincides with the name of the region in the north of Greece, Athens block the accession of the former Yugoslav Republic into NATO and the EU. On June 17, 2018, the Greek government signed an agreement with the Republic of Macedonia, which agreed to rename it to the Republic of Northern Macedonia. Macedonia received an official invitation to join NATO after the issue of its renaming was finally resolved. Source: Korrespondent