Macedonia's Foreign Minister: The referendum proved successful

Macedonia's Foreign Minister, Nikola Dimitrov, said Sunday's referendum in this country was successful because, as it put it, on the agreement with Greece on the name issue was declared over 600 thousand citizens.

Dimitrov made these comments, even though turnout in the referendum did not exceed the necessary threshold of over 50%.

“If more than 650 thousand citizens who made the referendum, over 600 thousand have voted over, this is a clear political mandate for Macedonia to move forward. The biggest victory by any victory of any political party”, Dimitrov said in a Facebook post.

He said the will of the people on the part of MPs in the Assembly remains to be heard now.

We owe the citizens the future. We will also secure it, in one way or another“, Dimitrov said.

He is one of the signatories of the agreement with Greece for changing his country's name to Northern Macedonia.

The adoption of this agreement, in the referendum and with the necessary constitutional changes, is said to pave the way for Macedonia's membership in NATO and the European Union.

On Sunday, citizens of Macedonia were declared to favour their country's membership in these organisations through implementation of the name agreement.