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In an atmosphere tense in the House and amid strong street protests, the Greek Parliament ratified this Friday, with the support of 153 of the 300 deputies, the agreement with Macedonia, which puts an end to a conflict and the former Yugoslav Republic will be renamed North Macedonia, opening the door for its integration into NATO and the European Union. Brussels hailed the ratification "as an example of reconciliation" and Alliance Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said it was awaiting Skopje's accession.
Rejected by a motley opposition – from the conservative New Democracy (ND) party to the Communist party and Aurora Dorada's neo-Nazis – and by 60% of the population on the streets, according to polls, ratification completes the constitutional revision approved by Parliament. from Skopje to change the name of the country, until now present in international fora with the provisional name of the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM, in its acronym in English), but recognized no more as Macedonia by more than 130 countries, including the United States, Russia and China.
This informal recognition was one of the motives used in the debate by the Greek Prime Minister, Alexis Tsipras, to overcome nominal nonsense, as well as the opportunity to mark history by solving a conflict that erupted in the beginning of the 1990s. The conservative Andonis Samarás, then foreign minister and two decades later, head of government charged with the execution of the second rescue. In addition, the pact "opens a new era of stability and progress in the Balkans," Tsipras said. His Macedonian counterpart, Social Democrat Zoran Zaev, congratulated his "friend" on Twitter for winning a "historic victory with our peoples".
But ratification was a bitter pill for Greece, where the majority of the population doubted Skopje and its so-called irredentist whims over the Hellenic region of Macedonia, the cradle of Alexander the Great, and considered the pact treasonable. For the executive, it is not a rosy way, because it cost him the rupture of the government coalition and a motion of confidence which he left undefeated.
The most disadvantaged are the small parties that revolve around Syriza. The worst unemployed is the former coalition partner, the independent Greeks (ANEL, in its Greek acronym), who has fractured between supporters and critics of the deal. Panos Kammenos, his head and former defense minister, fueled the debate by using a photo in which Davos sees billionaire George Soros and Macedonian Prime Minister Zoran Zaev, the main promoter of the agreement with Tsipras. Kammenos accused Soros of funding "a plan to destroy Greece".
The executive of Syriza pbaded the vote thanks in particular to the the rebels of ANEL, three votes of To Potami and one of the little Dimar (member of the Pasok redesign, today of the Movement for Change or KINAL in its acronym Greek). But these supports were also very expensive, as they meant the disappearance as parliamentary group of the liberal party Potami, split in the manner of ANEL, and the expulsion of KINAL from the only deputy of Dimar. Thus, Syriza has finished colonizing the entire center-left while polls on the intention to vote – the elections are scheduled in the fall – indicate a future parliamentary party, without Potami or Dimar, and led by the conservative ND.
ND's frontal opposition to the pact raises doubts as to its viability. Conservative leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis threatened during the debate to present a motion of censure against the executive and, although he gave up, he stressed his determination not to cancel the pact – "a national defeat "- yes to veto the entrance of Macedonia to power. North in the EU. "If the Greek Parliament adopts the agreement, it will be irreversible for all parties, Greeks and Macedonians of the North, whatever governments may exist in the future," said Dimitris Rapidis, an badyst. political and adviser to Syriza.
From Skopje, Simonida Kacarska, director of the European Policy Institute's badysis center, believes that "the dispute will not end automatically with the approval of the Greek Parliament, because it will of course depend on the behavior of the political leaders of both parties. country in the near future ". About the involvement of Europe, which has favorably badisted the rapprochement between Athens and Skopje – while Chancellor Angela Merkel has tried to convince even Mitsotakis of the quality of the pact – Kacarska said: "The European institutions have remained clearly on the sidelines of the dispute, although the agreement links its implementation to the accession negotiations.This puts the EU in a position to engage in the implementation , even if it is not something that will be comfortable ".
Among the benefits of the agreement, "very positive for Greece", Rapidis quotes, inter alia, a very symbolic goal: "The acceptance by Skopje never to use the sun of Vergina", a star or a yellow sun on a blue background which is the symbol of Macedonian royalty and which became, with the blue and white Greek and Byzantine panels (the two-headed eagle on a yellow background), the flag of the nationalist demonstrations; The one that took place Thursday in Athens ended with the arrest of 133 people linked to the far right, according to the police, according to Efe.
The horizon of possibilities opening up for Greece with the pact is less symbolic but more substantial. As reported by the business paper this week Naftemporikimost major Greek companies have subsidiaries in Macedonia and exports to the northern neighbor are three times larger than imports. Greece can not let go of this market, stressed the publication to emphasize the need for agreement.
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