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Skopje (AFP) – The Macedonian Parliament on Friday voted to launch the process of changing the name of the country to "Republic of Macedonia of the North", a first step to end the dispute with Greece since 25 years.
"Parliament has adopted the government's proposal to start the process of amending the Constitution," said President Talat Xhaferi after a vote late in the evening.
According to an AFP journalist on the ground, 80 deputies out of a total of 120 voted in favor of achieving the required two-thirds majority.
"A great day for democracy in Skopje!" Tweeted European Commissioner for Enlargement, Johannes Hahn. European and US officials had been supportive of the name change, arguing that it was a unique opportunity to tie Macedonia to Western countries.
This geopolitical issue has led to Russian-American tensions. Last month, Washington accused Moscow of leading a campaign of misinformation aimed at rejecting the name change at the referendum in late September.
Russia, which opposes Macedonian aspirations to join NATO, replied on Thursday: "The grossest interference by the United States and the European Union in the internal affairs of Skopje continues, a level that has already crossed all imaginable limits, "said the Russian Foreign Ministry in a statement.
The ministry mentioned the letter that Wess Mitchell, responsible for relations with Europe and NATO to the US State Department, sent this week to VMRO-DPMNE leader, Hristijan Mickoski, in which he said he was "disappointed" from the position of this right-wing opposition party.
The dispute has its source in the independence of the former Yugoslav Republic in 1991: Greece believes that the name "Macedonia" can apply only to its northern province. She explains that this name belongs to its historical and cultural heritage and can only be applied to its region around Thessaloniki.
An agreement reached in June between Macedonian Prime Ministers Zoran Zaev and Greek Alexis Tsipras plans to christen "Republic of Northern Macedonia" this small, poor country of the Balkans. This plan should pave the way for the lifting of the Greek veto for Macedonia's accession to NATO and the EU.
– Members released on bail –
The process is not complete, because amendments must now propose to incorporate the new name into the Constitution. Then another vote of Parliament will be needed to endorse this change.
Nevertheless, the first vote on Friday night, after a week of lively debate in Skopje, represents a crucial victory for Social Democrat Prime Minister Zoran Zaev, who had to fight to convince a dozen members of VMRO-DPMNE, whose leaders are strongly opposed to the name change.
"I want to say thank you to every MP and particularly to the VMRO-DPMNE deputies who placed the interests of the state above personal interests and the party despite the unnecessary pressure on them," said Zoran Zaev, adding that he was going to "guarantee" their safety.
Among these opposition members were three deputies who had been released on bail this week. They must answer for their alleged involvement in the invasion of Parliament of a hundred supporters of VMRO-DPMNE April 27, 2017, during which the blood had flowed, including that of the Prime Minister.
He refused to say whether there had been any negotiations for their possible amnesty. "Personally, I forgive each of them," he told reporters, without developing, but calling for "reconciliation" about the incident.
Zoran Zaev also rejected a charge by VMRO-DPMNE that his government allegedly offered bribes to vote on its text.
He said that if he failed to win a two-thirds majority he would call early elections.
– Strong abstention in the referendum –
On September 30, the referendum on the name change was largely ignored by Macedonians, with two-thirds of registered voters not participating in the vote.
Zoran Zaev invokes the victory of "yes" to more than 90% of voters, but the strong abstention was a setback for him and complicated his task to get the agreement accepted by Parliament.
The Prime Minister believes that no minimum participation was necessary for this "consultative" referendum, while the opposition, it argues that the bar of 50% participation should have been crossed to "validate" the referendum.
For this agreement to come into force, it must be ratified first by the Macedonian Parliament, then by Greece.
"I would like to encourage our neighbors to move with determination to ratify the agreement because there will be no other opportunity," said Alexis Tsipras.
In Greece, there is also uncertainty: the vote to ratify the agreement could potentially bring down the Tsipras government, whose coalition has only a small majority of 152 deputies in Parliament, including 7 in the Anel , out of 300.
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