Macedonia Leaders Resume Talks on 'Name' Referendum

After marathon discussions between the heads of all of Macedonia's parliamentary parties on Wednesday ended without agreement, talks were due to resume in Skopje on Thursday between the leaders of the four largest parties alone.

Zoran Zaev, the Prime Minister and head of the ruling Social Democratic Union, SDSM, said he had accepted the request of the head of the main opposition VMRO DPMNE party, Hristijan Mickovski, for a narrower meeting to try to resolve differences.

Mickovski's party has for weeks blocked the preparations for an autumn referendum on the country's historic deal with Greece, and has called the deal a national capitulation; the party left Wednesday's talks early on.

Mickovski has insisted on the prior adoption of a new law on the financing of political parties, and on a provision guaranteeing the formation of a wide coalition government before the next parliamentary elections, before agreeing to participate in the referendum.

"Mickovski's conduct … is unserious, irresponsible and offensive towards all the other political subjects and to Macedonian citizens," Zaev complained to reporters after the talks broke down on Wednesday night.

He said the other political leaders had discussed key aspects of the plebiscite, mulling a referendum question along the lines of: "Do you support EU and NATO membership by accepting the 'name' agreement between Macedonia and Greece?"

A principal aim of the landmark agreement with Greece, signed on June 17, was to ensure that Greece ended its longstanding blockade of Macedonia's membership of NATO and the EU.

Under the deal, Macedonia agreed to change its name to Republic of North Macedonia, while Greece agreed to lift its veto on Macedonia's EU and NATO...