The newly sworn-in president of North Macedonia on Friday again revisited the sensitive and contentious issue of the country’s constitutional name, as envisioned by the landmark Prespa Agreement, saying she “respects” the latter but has a “personal right” to use the name “Macedonia” – stand-alone.
Gordana Siljanovska-Davkova reopened the ostensibly resolved “name issue” that previously soured relations between Greece and the one-time Yugoslav republic to its north, which broke-off from Yugoslavia in 1991.
In reply to press questions while visiting the city of Ohrid, Siljanovska-Davkova repeated that the name she uses for the land-locked country “is a matter of personal determination, a right established by acts superior to those applicable in bilateral agreements.”
The conservative North Macedonia head of state, elected with the VMRO-DPMNE party’s support, said she’ll rely on dialogue to try and “persuade” Greece over the “correctness” of her positions. She also cited a “plan” on how she’ll proceed.
“Of course I have a plan; the plan is to build good neighborly relations; the plan is to have respect as well as self-respect, and I think that, as we do in politics, one must seek out the art of the feasible. We will do this soon,” she added.
