The President of the Hessen State Parliament Boris Rhein, awarded the 2020 Hessian Peace Prize to Prime Minister Zoran Zaev and former Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras at a special ceremony. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the award of the Albert Osswald Foundation was presented online for the first time this year.

According to the Government Press Service, Prime Minister Zoran Zaev donates his part of the award in the amount of 25,000 euros to the Solidarity Fund for assistance and support in dealing with the crisis caused by the coronavirus.

With the Hessian Peace Prize, we honor two people who have campaigned for peace and international understanding and who have managed to resolve a conflict that has deep roots in history, Rhein said in his speech at the ceremony.

He stressed that Zaev and Tsipras reached an agreement on the decades-long conflict between their countries over the name “Macedonia”, thus accomplishing “a real diplomatic feat that no one has done so far.”

Rhein said that the success achieved with the signing of the Prespa Agreement had an impact outside the region and sent a signal to the world that not only the right of the strongest exists and that even in today’s world there is still a path of respect and compromise, a path of peace and stability.