Republic of Macedonia

By George Gilson

Main opposition New Democracy leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis stressed his law and order platform, his opposition to the Prespa Agreement, and his opposition to pre-election handouts during the last two days of the European Parliament and local elections campaign in Florina and Thessaloniki.

In the presence of four presidents - Bulgaria, Albania, Kosovo and Serbia, and in the absence of the VMRO-DPMNE opposition, the new president of North Macedonia, Stevo Pendarovski, took office. There were also two former presidents of the state - Branko Crvenkovski - who rarely appeared at mass events and the former one - Georgi Ivanov.

Stevo Pendarovski has been sworn in as the new president of North Macedonia, promising he will serve all citizens in a deeply politically divided society and will lobby European Union leaders to approve the start of his country's accession talks in June.

The head of the Roman Catholic Church was greeted by the president and prime minister of North Macedonia, Djordje Ivanov and Zoran Zaev, and other representatives of the government and the city of Skopje.

Tomorrow morning Pope Francis will travel from Bulgaria to Northern Macedonia. About the moods in Skopje in the expectation of the Holy Father tells Eliana Dimitrova, journalist from the BNT. 

Tomorrow at noon at Macedonia Square in Skopje Pope Francis will serve the Holy Mass. About 15,000 people are expected to attend, not only from Macedonia, but from Croatia, Albania, Kosovo.

Polls have opened in North Macedonia for a presidential election runoff between two top vote-getters from the first round.

More than 3,400 polling stations opened at 7 a.m. local Sunday.

A presidential election in North Macedonia that gave voters another chance to express an opinion on their country's new name will go to a runoff after turnout in the first round of voting Sunday was too low for a candidate to win outright, election officials said.

In the summer of 2018, the prime ministers of Greece and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Alexis Tsipras and Zoran Zaev respectively, signed the historical Prespes agreement, whereby FYROM would be renamed North Macedonia.

Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar's visit to Skopje on Wednesday, just a day after Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras was there with a large entourage of ministers and businessmen, is seen in Greece as an indication of Turkey's growing concern over Athens's new role in North Macedonia after the ratification of the Prespes agreement. 

Environment and Energy Minister Yorgos Stathakis has said that despite the popular backlash from the Prespa Agreement, North Macedonia's EU prospects and course will serve to highlight the benefits of the accord.

Stathakis said it will take time for the positive repercussions of the agreement to become evident to the general public.