Macedonia PM says opposition 'Sound Greek'

As the presidential election race draws closer, the Prime Minister has accused the opposition of echoing Greece's line in the vexed Greek-Macedonian dispute over the country's name.

As election races hot up in Macedonia, the ruling VMRO DPMNE party has accused the opposition of holding standpoints on the sensitive issue of the country's name issue that betray national interests.

The opposition has meanwhile accused the ruling parties of taking too hard a line on the name issue, and of excluding them from any discussion about it.

The Prime Minister and VMRO DPMNE head, Nikola Gruevski, has gone so far as to say that the opposition Social Democrats, SDSM, sound like Greek politicians on the name issue - Greece being Macedonia's foe on the name issue.

Speaking at a party rally in support of VMRO DPMNE's candidate in the presidential race, the incumbent head of state, Gjorge Ivanov, Gruevski said: “I see how easily the SDSM throws different names [for Macedonia] on the table, how easily they speak against us, and hold us to blame for the name dispute not being solved and for Macedonia not entering the EU and NATO, although we fulfill all the requirements.

“Do I hear [Greek Deputy Prime Minister Evangelos] Venizelos speaking, or the opposition?" he asked.

"It looks like Venizelos is speaking, not a Macedonian presidential candidate. Only the Greeks say such things. I do not believe this is coincidental,” Gruevski added.

Stevo Pendarovski, presidential candidate of the opposition, replied that Gruevski was the only political figure in any position to negotiate with Greece, and so potentially "sell" the country's name, making it absurd to accuse the opposition of treason.

“A name solution should not be a matter of government, family, ethnic or personal consensus,” Pendarovski said.

“We should start solving the name issue by first building a national consensus on it,” he added.

Macedonia obtained EU candidate status back in December 2005, and European Commission reports have recommended a start to membership talks each year since 2009.

But the country has never been offered a date for EU accession talks, nor an invitation to join NATO, owing to a Greek blockade related to the dispute over its name. 

Greece insists that Macedonia’s name implies territorial claims to its own northern province, also called Macedonia.

Taking a tough line in the dispute with Greece over Macedonia’s name and identity has proved a winning formula for Gruevski who has held power since 2006.

During the ongoing presidential campaign, Gruevski’s political protégée, President Ivanov, has followed this line, building up an image of himself as a resolute defender of the country’s disputed name and identity.

Political analyst Suad Misini said that populism over the "name" question serves Gruevski’s party as the equivalent to a “nuclear political weapon” in the fight against the opposition.

It is being deployed in the election campaign to weaken its opponents who have had difficulty in formulating an understandable 'name' strategy for a mass audience, he noted.

By harnessing the name issue, Gruevski “defines the enemy of the Macedonians that people should fear” and profiles himself as “the saviour who will protect Macedonia from the enemy and from domestic traitors”, Minisi added.

On April 13, Macedonians will choose between four presidential candidates. A second round, pitting the two best-ranked candidates against each other, takes place on April 27, alongside snap general elections.