The parliament in Macedonia has cleared the way for a new state name. With a two-thirds majority, the parliament decided on Friday evening in Skopje, to bring appropriate constitutional changes on the way. The Balkan state should henceforth be called "Republic of North Macedonia".
Neighbor Greece exists because of its eponymous province in the north of the country for nearly three decades on the name change. As a means of pressure, Athens had blocked any rapprochement of Macedonia to NATO and the EU.
MIRROR ONLINE
The Macedonian head of government Zoran Zaev has made possible with the parliamentary decision the rapid admission of his country into NATO. This was preceded by a week-long struggle to drag opposition members to the government. The opposition rejects the name change because it sacrifices the national identity of the country. The Zaev camp recently had only 71 votes in parliament. Necessary were 80 votes, which were reached now.
The planned constitutional changes with the new state name must be approved at the end of the now initiated procedure again with the votes of at least 80 of the 120 deputies. Greece must accept the agreement between the two countries last summer in Parliament. Also in Athens there are problems to find a majority.
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Greek-Macedonian agreement victory of the West, debacle for Russia
In a non-binding referendum at the end of September, more than 90 percent of citizens in Macedonia voted for the renaming, but only one third of the voters participated.