61 percent of respondents in Macedonia said that they supported a solution to the name issue between Macedonia and Greece, with the belief that this solution would pave the way for the country’s accession into the European Union and NATO, a poll showed Saturday.
The poll, conducted by MProspect agency for the Institute for Democracy Societas Civilis-Skopje, involved 1,000 respondents, who were interviewed on January 19-26, 2018.
50 pct of Macedonians said they would support a name change to enable the country to become a member of the EU and NATO.
Asked whether a name change would change the meaning of what Macedonia and the Macedonian people are, 34 percent said it would be changed completely, 19 percent said that somewhat would be changed and 33 percent said it wouldn’t be changed at all while 4 percent said it would be somewhat unchanged, according to poll results.
Solving the name issue has turned into a key priority of the Macedonian government which has step up efforts to reach a deal with neighboring Greece.
Macedonia is formally called the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) at the UN. However, Macedonia is also the name of a northern province in Greece and the Greek authorities are worried that the use of the same name by the neighboring state could lead to territorial claims.
