North Macedonia's prime minister wants new elections after the EU passed on beginning membership talks. Now, the citizens should decide what's next for the Balkan state, he says.
Image: DW/P. Stojanovski
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The prime minister of North Macedonia, Zoran Zaev, called for early elections in a televised address on Saturday.
The move is a reaction to an EU decision taken Friday not to begin formal talks with North Macedonia that would allow the state to join the bloc. This had been one of the key goals of Zaev's administration.
"This is what I'm proposing: organizing quick snap elections where you, citizens, will make a decision for the road we are going to take," he said in the address.
Shape-shifting Macedonia
The naming dispute between Greece and North Macedonia has roots that go back to antiquity. The country's borders have moved about a bit over time, while ethnic changes have also made a mark.
Image: Robert Atanasovski/AFP/Getty Images
Present day
As well as Greece and North Macedonia, the geographic region of Macedonia extends into Albania, Bulgaria and Serbia as well as small areas of Kosovo (which you can't quite see here).
Greek origins
The ancient kingdom of Macedonia – or Macedon – was a relatively small part of the present day Greek province of Macedonia. It first expanded under King Perdiccas I, then widened to take in other areas.
A Roman province
After the fall of the Greek Empire, the Romans – who admired Alexander – used the old name Macedonia for the province encompassing much of northern Greece and the area north of it – including much of the modern-day North Macedonia.
A shift to the east
With the breakup of the Roman Empire into East and West, this region was overrun by the Slavic invasions. An entirely new province far to the east, including part of Thrace in modern-day Turkey, was named Macedonia by the Byzantine Empress Irene of Athens.
Ottoman roots for current concept
The geographic region known as Macedonia today roughly equates to the part of the Ottoman Empire known as Ottoman Vardar Macedonia. It included Greek and Slavic areas and was split into three administrative units, but the concept of Macedonia persisted. This remained the case for centuries and so this concept – of what Macedonia is – has stuck.
Let's put that all together...
...and there's certainly a fair bit of overlap — and room for confusion.
Small matter of empire
Of course, Macedonia's King Alexander the Great's realm stretched all the way to India — but it would be a bit of a stretch to call that Macedonia
As if it weren’t complicated enough, there’s another meaning of the word Macedonia. In Greece and many Latin-language-speaking countries, it’s also a fruit salad. The name is thought to have ben popularized at the end of the 18th century, referring to either the ethnic diversity of Alexander's vast empire or the ethnic mix of Ottoman Macedonia.
At a summit in Brussels on Friday, EU leaders failed to reach an agreement that would allow formal accession talks with the Balkan states of North Macedonia and Albania to start.
The decision to begin talks had widespread support among the bloc's member states, but key opponent France, with support from the Netherlands and Denmark, blocked the move.
Zaev echoed Tusk's sentiments on Saturday, saying, "We are victims of the EU's historic mistake."
North Macedonia has made concerted efforts in recent years to meet the requirements for EU membership. This included fighting widespread corruption at home and changing its name, formerly "Macedonia," to end a conflict with Greece.
Zaev, a social democrat, came to power in 2017 on a platform of EU accession. He will meet with the country's president and other political leaders on Sunday to discuss how to proceed.
