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An attempt to integrate the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia closer to the West was struggling on Sunday, as hundreds of thousands of voters abstained from participating in a crucial referendum on changing the country's name.
Foreign leaders, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel and US Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis, have all visited the Balkan state in recent weeks, seeking to convince voters to pave the way for Macedonia's accession to the country. the EU and NATO.
Greece signed a provisional agreement with Macedonia in July to withdraw the Athens veto on the progress made by its neighbor towards the accession of the two organizations, provided that its name is now "Republic of Macedonia of the North".
As part of the agreement to defuse the three-decade conflict, Mr. Skopje accepted the name change to assert that it did not involve any claims on the Greek territory, while Athens officially recognized the Macedonian language and ethnicity.
But by 5 pm local time, only 29 percent of the 1.8 million voters had participated, following calls for a boycott of the conservative opposition party and president Gjorge Ivanov.
"We want to be in the EU and NATO, but on our terms," said Vladimir Kavadarkov, one of the leaders of a demonstration against the proposals that took place close to A giant statue of Alexander the Great.
"We do not want to come in with our heads down through a back door, we want to stay up and go in front."
Although the referendum is advisory rather than legally binding, a decisive result would help the country's government to push the opposition to support the constitutional amendments necessary for the name change.
Macedonia is in the grip of a political crisis, corruption and mass emigration in the decade following the blocking of Greece's accession to NATO at the 2008 summit in Bucharest .
But in the middle of the afternoon, a polling station transformed into a dance club in the center of Skopje was relatively quiet, people came and went and voted without delay.
"I voted for a better future," said Goran Popovski, 50. "I do not agree with the name change, but I voted for NATO and the EU and I do not think I have given up so much."
"Our government must have the courage to go forward," even though voter turnout is not high enough, added Dori Kimovala, a lawyer who voted for. "I'm worried because most people are animated by an emotion about this problem."
Nevertheless, David Stephenson, a political consultant and former US diplomat, said the referendum could have legitimacy with only 600,000 votes – a third of those eligible.
He said that the country narrowly avoided a civil war in 2001, the largest number of votes for a single candidate or question was 550,000 in 2004: "If the referendum receives more votes, it can be a unifying factor ".
