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September 28, 2018 www.intellinews.com I Page 3
their own conviction,” the party’s leader Hristijan Mickoski said in a statement.
However, following this announcement more than 20 opposition MPs announced on their Facebook ac- counts that they will boycott the referendum. In their patriotic posts they said how they love their country and for that reason will not vote for the "harmful agreement" that will endanger Macedonian identity.
International encouragement
Before the crucial vote, a dozen foreign politicians visited Skopje in to support the government and to send encouraging messages to people to accept the name deal as good for the country’s Euro- Atlantic prospects. Foreign officials who visited Macedonia include German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Nato secretary general Jens Stoltenberg, EU High Representative Federica Mogherini and US Defence Secretary Jim Mattis.
French President Emmanuel Macron, whose country is skeptical about EU enlargement, sent a video message saying that the name deal is good for people in Macedonian.
If the referendum is successful, Macedonia will be renamed North Macedonia, which will require constitutional changes. This will unblock its EU and Nato integration processes. The agreement
Orban's private jet use causes controversy
as MPs are obliged to report valuable gifts in their annual wealth declarations.
Orban used the Bombardier Global 6000 luxury private jet to fly to Bulgaria to root for his favourite team MOL-Vidi (formerly Videoton) which played a qualifier against Ludogorec.
The Hungarian PM, an avid football fan, also
will then be sent to Greece, to be approved by the parliament in Athens.
Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias said earlier this month that he expects the name deal with Skopje to reach the Greek parliament in January 2019, according to Greek media.
Zaev has repeatedly said that the referendum should be seen as a last chance for the country to make progress in its EU and Nato integration processes or to face isolation.
However, the agreement first has to be passed by the Macedonian parliament, and even a yes vote doesn’t guarantee this would happen. For the changes to be passed, the parliament requires a two-thirds major- ity or 80 votes, which means some opposition MPs would need to support the changes. Currently the Social Democrats can rely on slightly over 70 votes.
VMRO-DPMNE leader Mickoski said on September 27 that if the threshold of 50% is not reached, the party will not support the constitutional changes.
According to the latest poll, over 76% of those polled support Macedonia to become an EU and Nato member. 48.6% support the name deal, while 33.2% believe that a better agreement could be reached in future.
used the jet to fly to Russia to watch two World Cup games. On June 21, Orban saw Croatia beat Argentina live in Nizhny Novgorod and just over three weeks later he was invited for the final
in Moscow, where he met Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The price of the Bombardier Global 6000, which is registered in Austria and is parked at Budapest Airport, is around $60mn and it costs $5,000- 10,000 an hour to operate, Atlatszo reported.
The flights were organised by Hungarian oligarch Istvan Garancsi, who is the co-owner of construc-