Greek govt faces censure vote, demos over Macedonia deal
ATHENS: Greece’s leftist-led government was expected to shrug off a censure vote and protests Saturday as it prepares to sign a provisional deal to end a 27-year name row with Macedonia.
The vote was to take place a day before the foreign ministers of Greece and Macedonia meet on the border to hold a landmark signing ceremony.
“The agreement to resolve the longstanding dispute over the name issue with the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia is a victory of historic importance for Greece,” Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said late Friday.
“We proved that where there is a will, a decades-old dispute can be resolved in a balanced way,” he said.
The agreement, which will eventually see Greece’s northern neighbour renamed the Republic of North Macedonia, has been welcomed by the United Nations, the European Union and Nato.
Athens had long objected to it being called Macedonia because it has its own northern province of the same name, which in ancient times was the cradle of Alexander the Great’s empire — a source of intense pride to modern-day Greeks.
But earlier this week, Tsipras and his Macedonian counterpart Zoran Zaev reached a deal to end the festering dispute.
Senior EU officials are to attend Sunday’s ceremony in the Prespes Lakes district, according to Greek reports.
Officials in Athens says it will help stabilise the historically volatile Balkan region, permitting Greece to focus on other regional challenges, Turkey among them.
But from the moment the details emerged, a political storm erupted in both countries.
Greece’s main opposition conservatives tabled a censure motion while Macedonia’s pro nationalist President Gjorge Ivanov has pledged to exercise a one-time veto to delay the deal.
Skopje hopes to secure a date to begin European Union accession talks at an EU summit in late June and an invitation to join Nato in mid-July.
In Athens, there is anger over the government’s acceptance that its neighbour will be able to refer to its language and ethnicity as ‘Macedonian’.
“Nobody can be called Macedonians except the Greeks,” protest organiser Michalis Patsikas told state agency ANA.
But to Macedonians, who have espoused this identity since the days of Yugoslavia’s Marshal Tito, the notion of revising their name and constitution is anathema.