German CDU official Gunther Krichbaum, who chairs the Committee on European Union Affairs in the Bundestag, confirmed that Macedonia will not be allowed to open accession talks in June, as Prime Minister Zoran Zaev promised.

Deutsche Welle in Macedonian quotes Krichbaum that the decision will be postponed, possibly for October. “It is certain that nothing will come of it”, Krichbaum said about the possibility to open accession talks in June.

Zaev promised that, after the humiliating name change, “North Macedonia” will easily be allowed to open EU accession talks, and implementation of the Prespa treaty is even tied with the talks. But, France, the Netherlands, and now even Germany are raising objections. The Zaev Government was shocked when Chancellor Angela Merkel recently asked him to go to the Bundestag and seek support for accession talks. Zaev was hoping to get Merkel to push Macron to change his mind on Macedonia, only to realize that even the German approval may be withdrawn.

Meanwhile DW turned to a solid Zaev supporter in Germany, European minister Michael Roth, who wrote an editorial in the FAZ to support opening of accession talks. But Roth comes from the social-democratic SPD party, which was recently badly defeated in the European elections, and despite its long term stranglehold over the German Foreign Ministry, is less and less able to deliver for Zaev.