After a provocative move by the president of North Macedonia, the new democratic government is in a difficult position to comply with the Prespa agreement without swearing in the country’s constitutional name and simply “Macedonia”.
The ND, which was the official opposition during the referendum on the Prespa Treaty, strongly disagreed with it and voted against it, although dozens of its officers attended rallies organized against the treaty, but it has now been called upon to internationalize and defend the issue. … the name of the neighboring country’s constitution.
At the same time, part of the opposition accuses him of “betting on far-right populism” as well as a risky foreign policy because he did not bring the cooperation notes with North Macedonia in time for the vote.
Fire from Syriza and the New Left
Syriza – PS attacked the government and announced that it would bring three cooperation protocols with North Macedonia to parliament for approval, something the ND has not done since 2019.
Even Stefanos Kasselakis, leader of the official opposition, accused the ND of “playing dice with the national issue for a few thousand far-right votes” in a post on social media.
“They believed that VMRO would come out. They instilled hope among the nationalists on the other side that together they would scrap the Prespa deal. So it came out. Now they are begging to stick to the deal. Now they are begging. Let the democratic world consider what wounds hatred, propaganda and immorality will open if the 41% delivers. ,” he asserted.
The New Left, for its part, called on Kyriakos Mitsotakis to “immediately ratify the Cooperation Memorandum of the Prespa Agreement”.
The New Left is calling on the Prime Minister to “immediately approve the co-operation notes that he has ‘frozen’ for five years to appease the far-right in the government and his party,” he said in a statement.
At the same time, Alexis Haritsis, head of the New Left parliamentary group from Thessaloniki, where he is touring, accused Kyriakos Mitsotakis of acting as a “sponsor” of nationalists in the neighboring country and VMRO in previous years. Today he makes a “swirl” that is “welcome”.
The position of PASOK, which voted against the Prespa agreement
PASOK – KINAL, for its part, underlined that the issue of the movement of the President of North Macedonia, Kortana Silianovska Davkova, should be internationalized.
As party spokesman Thanasis Klavinas pointed out, “The Prespa agreement has ambiguous points. The action of the new president of North Macedonia, who, as we know, has special nationalistic connotations and who does not swear in the name of the country’s constitution, sent a clear political message.
At the same time, he stressed, “we have lost the tools we had in this matter, the country has joined NATO and the veto option no longer exists.” The only weapon we have is Europe. We must definitely internationalize the issue, which the new democratic government failed to do in the past, and push even harder to send the right messages to the North Macedonian side.”
PASOK – KINAL’s parliamentary representative stressed in a statement, “We are now waiting for the steps taken by the Greek government to address the challenge, responding bilaterally and multilaterally and reporting the issue to international organizations such as the European Union and NATO”.
It is noteworthy that PASOK – Movement for Change voted against the Prespa Agreement in 2019. In particular, Fofi Jennimata, in a meeting of the Kinal Parliamentary Committee, said, “We believe that this does not serve the national interest, because instead of closing the wounds of the past, it opens new ones. It creates the risk of strengthening irreparability in the future. And worse. National consensus and dialogue on such a serious issue. Not only that, but the government is instrumentalizing this agreement to serve narrow partisan interests.”
The government called for the preservation of the Prespa agreement
Now the ND and the entire government are called upon to defend the Prespa agreement and protect the country’s interests.
The action of North Macedonia’s new president is a “flagrant violation of the Prespa agreement and the neighboring country’s constitution,” the foreign ministry said in a statement.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced, “In this context, further progress in its bilateral relations with Greece, North Macedonia and the post-European trend depends on the full implementation of the Prespa Agreement and above all on the use of the constitutional name of the country”.
Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, in a post on social media, recalled the ND’s opposition to the Prespa agreement, however, as he said, “Greece rejects manipulations by Ms Silianovska to open her term. He calls on her to return to her legal obligations and the behaviors derived from her role. We will not accept such slips. We reiterate that any progress in bilateral relations depends on Skopje’s honest adherence to the agreements. And, of course, on avoiding challenges.”
Makis Voridis characterized the election of North Macedonia’s new president as an “immediate post-election” move to call his country “Macedonia”.
“If you question the structure of North Macedonia, tomorrow morning you have a country without a name, because all the other countries have recognized it with the name it has. They are “shooting themselves in the foot” with what they are doing. This leaves a caveat for this agreement, at the structural and implementation level. It is “immediately I consider it a post-election” move, which is usually done. The reaction of the EU and the Greek government was immediate. They didn’t have much to do in North Macedonia.”
European reaction to Silianovska’s “Macedonia.”
The reaction of the head of the commission was due to the swearing in of Kortana Silyanovska Tavkova.
“For North Macedonia to continue its successful path towards EU membership, it is crucial that the country continues on the path of reform and fully respects its binding agreements, including the Prespa Agreement,” urges Ursula van der Leyen with her. Post to his personal account on X.
European Council President Charles Michel said it was “very disappointing” that North Macedonia’s new president did not use the country’s constitutional name at today’s swearing-in ceremony.
“The EU recalls the importance of continuing to implement legally binding agreements, including the Prespa agreement with Greece,” he points out.
At the same time today, in a “very unfortunate event” the new president of North Macedonia did not mention the country’s constitution during his inauguration, the European Commission reiterated, calling on the country’s newly elected authorities to continue to convince everyone. The European Union commits to North Macedonia’s European future.
During today’s conference of the Commission, Peter Stano, the representative for foreign policy affairs, referred to the relevant report of the President of the Commission and the report of the European External Action Service regarding the “very unfortunate event”. The country’s constitution did not name the new president of North Macedonia during his inauguration.
