On Tuesday, Macedonia’s parliament started debating a law about an agreement with neighboring Greece. The law could end a decades-long dispute over Macedonia’s name.
The Republic of Macedonia is the former Yugoslav republic. But Greece has a province with the name Macedonia. The overlap causes confusion for outsiders and friction between the two nations. (See “Name Dispute over Macedonia” in WORLDteen.)
Lawmakers voted 69-40 to proceed with a bill to rename Macedonia “North Macedonia.” Debates about the bill will continue this week in the Macedonian Parliament. Macedonia must change its constitution to formalize the deal. Then the country must hold a referendum on the constitutional amendment.
Greece’s parliament must approve the deal as well.
Opposition parties and many ordinary citizens in both Greece and Macedonia oppose the agreement. Each side says the deal gives too much to the other country. Several hundred people protested the deal during the parliamentary debate in Skopje, the capital of Macedonia. They shouted “traitors” and burned a copy of the agreement.
The Macedonian government controls 65 of its parliament’s 120 seats, so lawmakers should have little difficulty getting the name-change bill approved. But the country’s president, Gjorge Ivanov, insists he will not sign off on the law. That would force a repeat of the debate and another vote. Then if the name change is approved again, Ivanov would be unable to block it.
With all of the legal wrangling left to do, it’s hard to imagine that Macedonia will have a new name by the end of the month. But Foreign Minister Nikola Dimitrov says the clock is ticking. He and others want the country to meet deadlines for launching Macedonia’s—or North Macedonia’s—NATO and European Union membership process.
(AP Photo: People protest against the deal between Greece and Macedonia on Macedonia’s potential new name, North Macedonia.)
