Zoran Zaev set a new record in changing his position, said opposition leader Hristijan Mickoski. On Tuesday, Zaev said that the move by the Albanian led Education Ministry to rename two schools in Skopje who were named after Macedonian figures into Albanian – in the case of one of them, the school is renamed after terrorist commander who fought for secession from Macedonia in the 2001 civil war. But today, apparently after consulting with his indispensable Albanian coalition partners, Zaev said that the renaming is lawful and will stand. It was a dramatic flip-flop on a highly sensitive issue after just one day, and is emblematic of a campaign in which Zaev relies more on Albanian than on Macedonian voters.

Our group in the Cair municipal council voted against this decision. Our position is that the renaming of the schools is illegal and is deliberately done during a politically very sensitive moment. This benefits no-one. With his actions, Zoran Zaev made the biggest ethnic community in Macedonian, the Macedonian people, to feel like second class citizens, Mickoski said.

Cair is the only majority ethnic Albanian municipality in downtown Skopje. The renaming is mainly the work of the DUI party, which is ramping up nationalism in the divided three way race for Albanian votes.