SKOPJE, Oct. 18 (Xinhua) -- Macedonian largest opposition party VMRO-DPMNE refused to agree on the constitutional name changes and said "no" to the Prespa name agreement with Greece, local media reported on Thursday.
"Prespa Agreement is legally and politically dead," VMRO-DPMNE party said on a press release.
The opposing party made it clear that their political force would not support the name agreement with Greece, which would open the way for Macedonia's integration in NATO and the European Union.
"Even though over one million and 200,000 citizens have said no to changing the name of the country, Zaev doesn't want to quit, and is directly violating the will of the people," said VMRO-DPMNE's press reaction to the Macedonian Prime Minister Zoran Zaev's statement.
According to the VMRO-DPMNE's reaction Zaev is violently pushing forward the implementation of an agreement that was rejected by the citizens and should resign as he promised to do, but not only because of the damaging agreement he has concluded but also because of the ruined economy, the ruined healthcare and the disgraced education system.
Macedonian Parliament is debating this week to approve or not the motion on starting the changes on the country's constitution adopted on Oct. 8 by the Macedonian government.
The motion, which includes four substantial changes to the constitution, envisages, as the first change, the addition of the adjective "North" in the name Republic of Macedonia to align it with its name agreement with Greece.
Macedonia is formally called the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) at the United Nations. Macedonia is also the name of a northern province in Greece. Athens is worried that the use of the same name by the neighboring state could lead to territorial claims.
Following UN-mediated negotiations for years, Athens and Skopje reached a deal in June at the Prespes Lake, a natural border between the two states, to put an end to the name row which had started in 1991.
