Interior Minister Oliver Spasovski said that the Government has decided to begin printing identity cards under the imposed name “North Macedonia”, even though the law that regulates this was not adopted in the Parliament. Estimated 30,000 citizens are waiting for their identity cards as issuing stopped at a critical time – ahead of the local elections in October.

The Government met and approved the proposal from the Interior Ministry. The printing of identity cards, under the new template, begins tomorrow, Spasovski said.

As the new law imposing the name “North Macedonia” in the documents remains stuck in Parliament, the Government told Spasovski to adopt a by-law, which will be in violation of the current law. The violation of the law by the Government opens a new cycle of uncertainty and will likely lead to a court challenge of the by-law.

Zoran Zaev is under pressure from Greece to begin issuing the documents under the imposed name, but also from his Albanian coalition partners, who demand that the documents declare the ethnic identity of its carrier. Greece strongly opposes this, as the majority of the cards would be issued to ethnic Macedonians.