VMRO-DPMNE member of Parliament Mile Lefkov reiterated that the party is prepared to support the new law on identity cards, provided that they are not issued under the imposed name “North Macedonia”.

The Zaev Government, pressed by Greece and his BESA coalition partner, proposed the new cards that would include the name “North Macedonia” and also state the ethnic identity of the holder. Albanian parties demand that the cards state the nationality of the citizen as “Albanian”, and VMRO-DPMNE approved of the proposal, eager to have Macedonian citizens also state their national identity, at a time when it is under strong pressure from neighboring countries. Meanwhile, Zaev today made a completely unseemly comment while discussing this latest national identity issue.

Zaev uses a crude sexual pun to describe the growing dispute over the identity cards

This document is a form of an internal passport. Our only amendment here is that article 6 of the law is removed – that is the article that provides the name Republic of Macedonia to be replaced with the new name. Our proposal is justified because it is provided that its adoption is on a five year window. This is our condition for supporting this law. It is not typical that the ethnic identity is listed in such cards but we have an opportunity that all Macedonians can have a document identifying them as such and we will support it, Lefkov said.