With the required majority for such changes in parliament still in the balance, Macedonia’s government has launched the legal procedure for adoption of the historic ‘name’ agreement with Greece.
At an extraordinary session on Monday, Macedonia’s Social Democrat-led government adopted a motion on making constitutional changes to change the country’s name into the Republic of North Macedonia.
“There are four substantial changes to the [Macedonian Constitution], that the government proposed to parliament,” the government’s spokesperson, Mile Bosnjakovski, told a press conference.
Тhe first change will be the addition of the adjective ‘North’ to the name of the country, as stipulated in the ‘name’ agreement.
The second change envisages changes in the Constitution’s introductory statement that would reaffirm the foundations of Macedonia’s statehood in more detail, Bosnjakovski explained.
The third change stipulates that the country would accent its guarantees for the territorial integrity and sovereignty of its neighbouring countries.
The last change concerns the articles that determine the care of the country for its diaspora.
In the section regarding the diaspora, Bosnjakovski explained that the country will be obligated to take care of the rights “of the Macedonian people and of all the citizens of the country who reside abroad,” without “interfering in the sovereign rights of other countries and their internal affairs, in any forum and for any reason.”
Once parliament receives the government motion, expected on Tuesday, it will schedule a plenary session and a session of its Committee on Constitutional Matters.
Sources from the main ruling Social Democrats told BIRN earlier on Monday that the launch of the procedure was not a signal that the ruling parties had secured the two-thirds majority in parliament that is needed for constitutional changes.
“This is part of our attempt to speed up the legal procedures in case we secure a majority… while the talks [with opposition MPs] are still ongoing” one source said.
“If the motion fails in parliament during the first reading, the parliament will dis-assemble and we will have early elections,” the same source added.
Following the September 30 referendum, which was rendered legally invalid due to the low turnout – despite the high level of support among those voted for the deal – the ruling parties launched talks with their opposition counterparts in a final attempt to persuade them to support the agreement in parliament and avoid early elections.
The governing coalition, led by the Social Democrats and its supporters among smaller parties, has the backing of 71 of the 120 MPs in the chamber.
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