Row over North Macedonia's name flares up again

North Macedonia's decades-long name dispute with Greece has flared up again, further jeopardising its path to EU membership.

Athens has warned its northern neighbour it will not ratify parts of a landmark 2018 agreement that had appeared to settle the row.

But the victory of nationalists in parliamentary and presidential elections in Skopje last week has enflamed the issue.

The VMRO-DPMNE party scored commanding victories, ousting the centre-left Social Democrats who struck the Prespa deal with Greece six years ago. Trouble was not far behind.

During her inauguration on Sunday, the new president, Gordana Siljanovska-Davkova, referred to her country as simply "Macedonia".

Disingenuously, her office insisted that she was not trying to undermine the Prespa Agreement, but simply exercising her "personal right to self-determination and self-identification".

North Macedonia’s prime minister-elect, VMRO-DMPNE leader Hristijan Mickoski, further muddied the waters by calling the president’s stance "honourable".

Athens has been incandescent. Greece labelled the president’s swearing-in ceremony a "gross violation" of the Prespa Agreement. Mr Mickoski’s confirmation that he shared similar views provoked further fury.

Now, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis is threatening to reimpose the Greek veto on North Macedonia’s EU accession negotiations.

"If some believe they can disregard the agreement, they should understand that their path to Europe will remain closed," he warned.

In fact, the road to EU membership already seemed strewn with obstacles long before VMRO-DPMNE won the elections.

No sooner had Greece dropped its veto than Bulgaria decided to raise objections of its own - insisting that North Macedonia should acknowledge the Bulgarian heritage of its country and people.

The only way out was through constitutional changes - acknowledging the Bulgarian language and minority.

That required a two-thirds majority in North Macedonia’s National Assembly. But VMRO-DPMNE refused to cooperate, partly on principle, but mostly as a way to make life difficult for the previous Social Democrat government.

That set the scene for last week's elections, when a frustrated electorate punished the Social Democrats for failing to deliver on the promises it made when it said the name change would bring prosperity, security and EU membership.

VMRO-DPMNE's victory was never in serious doubt. The only question was how its leaders would act when they took power.

With the Social Democrats humbled, would the new ruling party switch to a more conciliatory approach towards North Macedonia's neighbours? Or would they double down on the nationalist rhetoric that Greece had tricked Macedonians into changing their country’s name, without receiving anything of value in return?

It has not taken long for the answer to emerge.