Republic of Macedonia

Just over 50 percent of respondents were positive or "probably positive" about the outcome of the 7 July general election that swept New Democracy to power while 46 percent were negative or "probably negative" according to a Kappa Research poll conducted between 9-11 July

North Macedonia's Prime Minister Zoran Zaev in an interview with  Germany's   Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) published days before the first anniversary of the 17 June signing of the Prespa Agreement expressed confidence that a Mitsotakis government will not challenge the accord that the New Democracy leader so bitterly opposed.

EU Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker indicated on Tuesday that he was not concerned about the effect a possible change in government in Greece will have on the Prespes accord, noting it is an official agreement signed between two states.

On the one hand, the Commission and Germany support the opening of the accession talks, while on the other France is opposed. At the same time, Brussels, Berlin, and Paris all have their own strategies for the EU perspective of the Western Balkans, but with different end goals or lack thereof.

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.