German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats have urged their Macedonian sister party, VMRO DPMNE, to support the Greek deal in parliament – which it has so far opposed – or risk isolating Macedonia from Europe.
Germany’s ruling centre-right party has urged its sister opposition party in Macedonia to support the deal with Greece in parliament – or be politically responsible for blocking Macedonia’s integration into the EU and NATO and for isolating the country from Europe.
The deputy chair of the Christian Democrat/Christian Social group in the German Bundestag, Johann Wadephul, said that since the turnout in Sunday’s “name” deal referendum in Macedonia did not reach the 50 per cent of the electorate threshold, the vote on the deal in parliament was now decisive.
“More than 91 per cent of the voters voted in favour of changing the country’s name into ‘North Macedonia,’” he recalled, calling this a vote “for the further perspective of their country in NATO and EU”, Macedonia’s state MIA news agency reported on Wednesday.
The CDU/SCU parliamentary group said it regretted that only about 37 per cent of eligible voters participated at the referendum, far below the required turnout of more than 50 per cent.
However, as the referendum result was not deemed binding, “it is crucial that the necessary two-thirds majority for the constitutional amendments and the name change is achieved in the vote in parliament”, Wadephul said.
The CDU/SCU group urged the main opposition party in Macedonia “to agree to historically important vote in the parliament on the constitutional amendments. Otherwise, it would be politically responsible for blocking this path for Macedonia in the long run and thus isolating the country from Europe”.
VMRO DPMNE has thus far dismissed the deal reached with Greece as an act of capitulation.
Merkel’s CDU was widely seen as an important mentor to the VMRO DPMNE party in its bid to join the centre-right European People’s Party, EPP.
Macedonian current centre-left-led coalition, which backed a “yes” vote for the name agreement reached this summer, holds only 71 of the 120 seats in the Macedonian parliament of 120 legislators.
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