Republika was informed that the protocol for the visit of Slovenian Prime Minister Marjan Sarec was altered to ensure that he and Zoran Zaev steer clear from the Macedonia – Slovenia football game in Skopje.

Sarec apparently timed his visit to Macedonia with the important qualifier in mind. Their presence at the game was even announced in some of the press.

But the two eventually decided to change the schedule and go visit the southern border with Greece, to inspect the barriers laid in place for the migrants where Slovenia has deployd a small police presence.

Unofficially, Republika has learnt that the reason for this change of program is that Zaev was concerned about the chants he would be exposed to at the Philip II of Macedon stadium. Sure enough, nobody in the crowd was using the imposed name “North Macedonia”, instead the 15.000 strong crowd was often heard chanting “Never North – Only Macedonia”.

Football fans chanted “Never North – Only Macedonia”