The pro-Government 24TV reports that Prime Minister Zoran Zaev has reached a deal with the small ethnic Albanian BESA party which was holding down the vote on the amendments to rename Macedonia into North Macedonia.

BESA demanded that the position of the Macedonian nation in the constitutional law which is accompanying the amendments is watered down even further than what Zaev agreed to in his talks with Greece. This prompted other members of Parliament who sided with Zaev, especially the eight former VMRO-DPMNE members, to say they will vote against if BESA’s demands are accepted.

Zaev offered BESA different formulas in the Albanian translation of the text of the law. An agreement with BESA should give Zaev the 80 votes he says are enough to amend the Constitution (most legal experts insist that the number is 81).