Interior Minister Oliver Spasovski caused outrage in the public with his demand that all citizens must replace their passports, identity cards and driver licenses, even if they are perfectly valid for years to come – and replace them with documents carrying he imposed name “North Macedonia”. Spasovski wants the public to do this by February, causing long lines in the calling centers where such procedures are booked, and will likely cause citizens to be unable to vote in the key elections next year – an outcome that the ruling SDSM party is probably counting on.

At the same time, his Ministry still has the name Republic of Macedonia on its website. This includes the portion of the site where people are forced to try to register for new documents.