In an interview with Der Standard on Monday 8 October, European Enlargement Negotiations Commissioner Johannes Hahn denounced the threats made by the opposition VMRO party to its own parliamentarians that want to support the government in parliament for the constitutional changes needed to change the name of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. The government needs a dozen or so votes from the VMRO if the amendment is to get passed.
Hahn said the threats were totally unacceptable from a party that claims to be pro-European and democratic.
Euro-Atlantic integration is mentioned by the VMRO as an objective and the commissioner warned that the party should act accordingly and allow adoption of the Prespa agreement. He called on the VMRO to abandon its destructive position and put the interest of the country and its citizens ahead of the party’s political interests. Hahn said the call by some members of the VMRO for a boycott of the referendum bore witness to a "lack of democratic maturity" (see EUROPE 12107).
Hahn also warned against early elections, saying it was not certain that they would give the government party the two-thirds majority needed for the changes to the constitution. He said there was a certain window of time that needed to be used now, otherwise this unique opportunity to implement the agreement on the name and therefore EU accession prospects could be lost for a long time, perhaps even for ever. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)