Hristijan Mickoski

The prime minister-elect of North Macedonia, Hristijan Mickoski, referred anew to his country as "Macedonia" in a social media post on Wednesday. 

After decades of fruitless negotiations, Athens and Skopje signed in 2018 an international agreement which, among its many provisions, stipulated that the country's official name would be "North Macedonia," to be used both domestically and abroad.

It's an obligation for North Macedonia's leaders and officials to use the country's agreed upon constitutional name in all cases.

Incendiary statements by Hristijan Mickoski, the winner of North Macedonia's May 8 parliamentary election, have dispelled the illusion that his VMRO-DPMNE party, the core of the triumphant center-right coalition, is a modern European center-right party and not the nationalist populist formation led by his predecessor, Nikola Gruevski.

The rift between Athens and Skopje is deepening, with North Macedonian Prime Minister-elect Hristijan Mickoski stating he will refrain from verbally using the country's constitutional name - i.e without the affixed geographical designation of North - in violation of the Prespa Agreement.

The newly inaugurated President of North Macedonia, Gordana Siljanovska-Davkova, upheld her campaign pledge during the swearing-in ceremony by refraining from using "North" in the country's name. This omission reflects her stance against the 2018 Prespa Treaty with Greece, which altered the country's name to facilitate NATO membership.

In the wake of the nationalist VMRO electoral victory in North Macedonia, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said on Saturday that he is following with "concern some of the statements made by party officials" regarding their pledges not to honor the Prespes name agreement of 2018 that settled the dispute with Greece over the country's name.

After a decisive electoral triumph, Gordana Siljanovska Davkova, representing VMRO-DPMNE, clinched victory in the second round of North Macedonia's presidential elections, defeating incumbent Stevo Pendarovski. Siljanovska vowed to serve as a president for all citizens and addressed key diplomatic issues, notably commenting on relations with neighboring Bulgaria.

The confirmation of the rising trend of the nationalist forces represented by VMRO-DPMNE, through the election of the new president of North Macedonia, Gordana Siljanovska-Davkova, and the anticipated government under the same party, has not taken Athens by surprise which has opted for a wait-and-see attitude.

The resounding victory of North Macedonia's conservative VMRO-DPMNE candidate Gordana Siljanovska (41.2% to 20.5%) over the country's outgoing president Stevo Pendarovski, who is supported by the Socialist Party, in the first round of the presidential election elections is a very clear reflection of a general upward nationalist trend in the neighboring country.

The leader of the main opposition party in North Macedonia has said that if elected prime minister, he would refer to the country solely as "Macedonia," regardless of the 2018 Prespes Agreement that settled the dispute with Greece over the country's name.