Time published an editorial detailing how members of Parliament in Macedonia, but also in Greece, were blackmailed and bribed in order to support the name change deal. Author Angelos Chryssogelos also expects that the forcible imposition of the deal will have unexpected consequences in both countries and will in fact deteriorate the stability of the Balkans.

In Macedonia, Zaev, who lacked the two-thirds majority in parliament to change Macedonia’s constitution, used both threats of judicial prosecutions for corruption and a questionable law of partial amnesty to induce opposition lawmakers to vote for his constitutional amendments. Opposition MPs in Skopje were reportedly under immense pressure by both supporters and opponents of Prespes, including foreign governments, to vote accordingly. Each side has accused the other of threatening physical violence or promising bribes, Time reports.

In the Greek Parliament, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras also pressured opposition members of Parliament to support the deal, offering them Government jobs or places in the SYRIZA list at the next elections.

Tsipras has already been accused by the opposition in recent months for undue meddling in the judiciary, media and the army. Now, his patching up of ad hoc majorities for different votes in parliament has challenged norms of parliamentary and constitutional procedure and contributed to the further mistrust of the political systems by Greek citizens, Chryssogelos adds.

Time reports how large majorities in both countries reject the deal and describes how, in Macedonia, it is held together by a coalition that includes minority of ethnic Macedonians and politicians from the Albanian ethnic minority, while a majority of ethnic Macedonians clearly opposes it.

In other words, the deal pits a coalition of minorities against a majority of the majority. Such an arrangement is bound to reignite ethnic tensions and increase political polarization in Macedonia—the exact opposite of the E.U.’s intention, Chryssogelos writes.

Overall, the deal will only further erode public trust in the political process, Time reports. The readiness of the European Union to make “bargains with questionable national elites and their methods”, as long as they advance “pro-EU results on the ground” is short-sighted and self-defeating, the magazine reports.