A powerful and unanimous rejection of the imposed name change was evident during the large VMRO rally in Skopje today, when just as party leader Hristijan Mickoski was preparing to speak the thousands strong crowd broke into a chant of “Never North Always Macedonia”.

This is the rallying cry of the opponents of the name change and it has been heard on political events, sport stadiums and protests.

VMRO-DPMNE has pledged to reverse the name change – immediately if the party is able to win 80 votes in Parliament, or after the country improves its international standing by joining the European Union.