The Interior Ministry ordered 240.000 blank passports, raising questions over whether it expects the attempt to rename Macedonia into North Macedonia to fail, or if it already began ordering passports with the “Republic of North Macedonia”. The Ministry wouldn’t tell under what name are the passports which are currently sitting in customs.

We inform the public that we have enough blank passports on stock and there will be no problems with issuing new or renewed passports, the Ministry said on Friday.

Alfa TV reports that it tried to get answers from the Government, but its PR service forwarded all questions to the Interior Ministry. Some media outlets reported that the passports are under the name Republic of Macedonia, indicating that they would be in use for a long time before any name change, if approved, takes effect.

Even if the constitutional amendments are adopted on January 15th, it will take a while to change all procedures and regulations, and to have them take effect, the Ministry said, implying that the name change will be a protracted process.