With the numbers 153 to 146 won the prime minister Alexis Tsipras to a victory in the question he put his political future on – the so-called Prespaavtalet that will end 28 years of infected quarrel about the neighbouring country’s name, which he signed in the summer together with his Macedonian colleague, Zoran Zaev.
As the parliament in Skopje has already approved the agreement means the greeks yes to the name change now becoming reality, which in turn paves the way for membership in Nato and the EU for the country Nordmakedonien.
flowed as expected into, literally seconds after the votes had been counted in Athens.
”They took the risk, they were ready to sacrifice their own interests for something larger. Zoran, Alexis – well done!”, tweeted the president of the European council Donald Tusk.
https://twitter.com/eucopresident/status/1088791928777424897
Nato secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg on his side, wrote that he ”looks forward to Nordmakedoniens connection” to västalliansen.
the main clubs threatened by the unashamed nationalism in Europe, the faltering of enthusiasm from the Trumps Washington and an aggressive Russia is the voting figures in the Athens of course a success out of these Brysselhöjdares perspective.
In the same way, it is great that a conflict in the troubled Balkans, for once, can be resolved peacefully.
Still, it is worth to listen to the warning voices.
among both the greeks and the macedonians. Many feel run over by the very western alliances, which opens the bosom of Nordmakedonien.
A majority of greeks think that it was wrong to let the neighboring country even have the word Macedonia in its name.
On the other side of the border, many – perhaps most – in the same way that it was wrong to go along with that at all change the name.
the Compromise hurts. But it is perhaps in the kompromissers nature to do it.
to keep? The leader of the opposition Kyriakos Mitsotakis – who leads in the opinion polls – has threatened to tear it up.
But even if Mitsotakis party New democracy voted no on Friday suggests he is now the diplomatic price for such a u-turn would be too high for Greece.
another signal is that of the protests against the agreement, which in the past gathered upward of 100,000 greeks, looks to peter out – at least temporarily. During Friday’s vote defied only a few hundred protestors speaking outside the parliament in Athens.
Read more: Why can two people make a fuss about the name of a country in 28 years
