Merkel Is Meddling In Macedonia’s Referendum

Merkel’s visited Macedonia last weekend ahead of this month’s referendum on its name change.

She followed in the footsteps of her Austrian counterpart and the NATO Secretary General who also came to the country to show their support for its government’s proposal to rename it “North Macedonia”. This so-called “compromise name” was agreed to with Greece earlier this summer and would subsequently allow the country to be fast-tracked into the EU and NATO after Athens drops its objections to its membership that were previously made on the supposed basis that Macedonia’s constitutional name implies territorial claims against it.

Germany therefore understandably has an interest in the outcome of the upcoming referendum, but the amount of high-profile foreign lobbying in support of the “yes” vote wouldn’t be necessary if the Macedonian people were solidly behind this move, which they aren’t, and that deserves to be analyzed a bit more in depth. Simply put, Merkel’s visit and that of the two other leaders before her confirms that the West is worried that the patriotic opposition’s campaign to boycott the vote will prove how unpopular and illegitimate the proposed name change is, thus throwing a spanner in their plans to expand the EU and NATO.

Had President Putin come out in full support of the boycott because of his country’s stated position of always opposing the expansion of NATO, then it would have been framed by the Mainstream Media as so-called “Russian meddling”, but Merkel’s move is being applauded by these very same outlets because of the need to craft the perception that the most influential forces in Europe are behind the government’s initiative. This “legitimization” of the referendum is also important because the patriotic opposition believes that the vote is rigged in favor of the name change.

Merkel Is Meddling In Macedonia’s Referendum — German Chancellor Angela Merkel arrived to Macedonia on Sept. 8, 2018, three weeks before the referendum for Macedonia’s deal with neighboring Greece to change the country’s name to “North Macedonia” that would facilitate country’s EU and NATO accession.

Merkel’s actual meddling serves the purpose of signaling to the post-Color Revolution Macedonian authorities that Germany – and therefore the entire EU – won’t contest the results if the “yes” vote wins amid loud accusations of fraud, which essentially gives the government a free hand to manipulate the outcome as it pleases. This makes her direct political intervention into the country’s sovereign affairs all the more hypocritical because it proves that the EU really does expand by hook or by crook in spite of its claims of being a bastion of “democracy”.

The post presented is the partial transcript of the CONTEXT COUNTDOWN radio program on Sputnik News, aired on Friday Sep 14, 2018:

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