Professor Gordana Siljanovska, who was the VMRO-DPMNE candidate in this year’s presidential elections, congratulated to the citizens on the eve of September 30th, the first anniversary of the failed 2018 referendum, when the majority of voters rejected the proposed name change by staying in their homes.

On September 30th 2018 I heard the loud Macedonian civic silence. The boycott was the logical response to the Government and its attempt to drab itself in stolen EU and NATO clothing, their deliberately unclear, imprecise question which was meant to legitimize the name change. September 30th is the day of victory of civic silence over the authoritarian and totalitarian noise of the well paid PR orchestra, hired to play according to someone else’s tunes, Siljanovska said.

The 2018 referendum failed due to low turnout – only 36 percent of the voters showed up, and even that was achieved with significant ballot stuffing, and the referendum required a turnout of at least 50 percent to be considered valid. Despite the result, the Zaev regime went ahead with the constitutional amendments in line with the referendum question, pressuring and blackmailing opposition members of Parliament who faced arrests in order to get to the two thirds majority to ram the amendments through.