Greek paper To Vima reports that the Mitsotakis Government is looking into different options it can take as Macedonia was stuck in its EU integration, and as a result, calls to abandon the Prespa treaty are growing. The Greek diplomats were reportedly worried that a win for the VMRO-DPMNE party at the April elections may undermine the treaty – which the Greek Government is itself opposed to.

The imposed name change treaty contains an article that conditions the domestic use of the name “North Macedonia” with the opening of the EU accession talks chapters. Greece did not directly veto Macedonia from opening the talks this year, as it did in the past, although it pushed that Macedonia is coupled with Albania which made the process more difficult. The veto eventually came from France, and it still affects the implementation of the Prespa treaty, which was noted even by the chief proponents of the name change such as Zoran Zaev, Stevo Pendarovski and Nikola Dimitrov.

According to the Greek paper, a meeting in the Foreign Ministry last week included top Greek diplomats who looked into the possible next steps if the implementation of the treaty is stopped on the Macedonian side. They reportedly agreed to intensify talks with Macedonia and Albania, as well as with EU member states from the Balkans.

To Vima reports that while the calls to suspend the treaty come from the ruling SDSM party, Greece is mainly worried about a VMRO-DPMNE win at the early elections. VMRO-DPMNE did not come out in favor of suspending the implementation treaty, but it is not using the name “North Macedonia”, and its officials have announced that Macedonia will rescind the Prespa treaty if VMRO wins enough votes in Parliament, or after Macedonia has joined the EU and with that solidified its international position.

Meanwhile, the paper reports that Greek diplomats are warning Zaev to refrain from adopting a “nationalist rhetoric” in an attempt to win the elections. “Athens will demand that Zaev insists on the need to bring the country closer to Europe and to implement the Prespa treaty”, To Vima reports.