In the Macedonian Parliament, a session is scheduled today to vote on the four amendments which, if accepted, would rename Macedonia into North Macedonia. The amendments would remove nearly all mention of Macedonia in the Constitution and replace it with North Macedonia, and give a number of additional concessions to the ethnic Albanian minority in the country and assurances to Greece.

The Zoran Zaev Government, which proposed the amendments, needs a two thirds majority of 81 votes to push the amendments through. Zaev made some last minute concessions to two ethnic Albanian opposition parties on Tuesday in an attempt to secure their votes, in which he further erodes the exceptional role of the Macedonian people in the Preamble of the Constitution.

The Parliament passed one amnesty law and is working on another to secure the votes of several former VMRO-DPMNE members of Parliament, who were charged with “terrorism” and detained until they agreed to vote to begin the process to amend the Constitution. Still, they insisted on securing amnesty before the final vote on the constitutional amendments is cast.

VMRO-DPMNE expelled these members of Parliament from the party and is boycotting the entire process. According to the largest opposition party, the citizens clearly rejected the proposed name change with their boycott of the September 30th referendum. The party considers the political persecution it is under, involving hundreds of criminal charges against its officials, as an autocratic push aimed at renaming and reconstituting Macedonia.