There is a Diaspora group called Forum for Democratic Macedonia that is pro-Zaev's policies and agreements. They are relatively new and consist of some recent immigrants who were involved or supported the Color Revolution. This is probably who they met with, along with other select individuals.

[QUOTE=vicsinad;175802]There is a Diaspora group called Forum for Democratic Macedonia that is pro-Zaev's policies and agreements. They are relatively new and consist of some recent immigrants who were involved or supported the Color Revolution. This is probably who they met with, along with other select individuals.[/QUOTE]I'm a follower of Sasha Uzunov (who seems well educated on Macedonian issues) on twitter and he claims majority of supporters of the so called Forum for Democratic Macedonia, is a Zaev diaspora front and are ex Serb / Yugoslavist sympathisers who hate Macedonians. I have no reason to doubt his claims.

[B]Ednooki[/B] - Severna Makedonija
[url]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTrs-SkbxEs[/url]

[url]http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/article/macedonia-restricts-media-freedom-again-journalists-warn-08-13-2018[/url]

[B]Macedonia Accused of Restricting Media Freedom Again[/B]

International and domestic media watchdogs have accused the government and the opposition of sneaking in legal changes that will further curb press freedom and distort the media market in Macedonia.

Macedonia’s government and the opposition have used the turbulence surrounding the forthcoming ‘name’ referendum to reintroduce state-funded advertising, which was halted a few years ago, and introduce controls over online media – moves that watchdogs and journalists say will curb media freedom and distort the media market again.

Parliament passed these provisions, which are now part of the Electoral Code, on July 25, after the four main political parties in the country agreed on it as part of their talks about the forthcoming*referendum on the historic ‘name’ agreement with Greece.

“The amendments enable interference by public authorities in the freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart information and ideas during electoral campaigns and in their editorial independence,” the European Federation of Journalists, EFJ said in a statement on Monday.

On August 9, the Council of Europe's platform for the protection of journalism also issued a warning to the Macedonian parliament about the provisions.

The country’s leading Journalist’s Association, ZNM, the Independent Trade Union of Journalists and Media Workers, SSNM, the Macedonian Council of Media Ethics, SEEM, and even the state-run Audio and Audio Visual Agency, AVMU, have all criticised the changes.*

The first provision allows political parties to use state budget money for their political advertisements during elections.*

“This brings back, in a big way, the government advertisement campaigns from the time of the regime of [former Prime Minister Nikola] Gruevski, when the government spent public money on media campaigns about their alleged successes,” said Naser Selmani, the head of the ZNM.

Although the Social Democrat-led government claims this will regulate the financing of political parties and introduce an equal playing field, while in opposition, the Social Democrats spent years harshly criticising their predecessors, the administration led by Gruevski, the former chief of the right-wing VMRO DPMNE party, who spent millions on state-sponsored media campaigns.

The former government*halted its controversial ad campaigns in 2015*after widespread criticism that it was using them to control the media and disrupt the media market. It did so after being entangled in a major wiretapping scandal which led to it being ousted in 2017, after a*deep and prolonged political crisis.

Another disputed amendment to the Electoral Code empowers the State Election Commission to register and monitor online media reporting on the elections. In addition, Article 181a of the law provides for the imposition of fines of up to 4,000 euros on traditional and online media if they are found guilty of “unbalanced or impartial reporting”.

This is the first time that the Electoral Commission has been tasked with monitoring media reporting.*

Previously, it was the AVMU that monitored and fined media for biased reporting, but it gave up this practice during last year’s local elections, saying the practice was flawed and not in line with European standards.

Before coming to power, the Social Democrats pledged to honour the opinions of media watchdogs and professionals, who for the most part are against tight regulation of the media sphere, insisting that self-regulation combined with a government policy of non-interference is preferable.

[url]http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/article/macedonia-referendum-campaign-picks-up-pace-08-14-2018[/url]

[B]Macedonia Referendum Campaign Picks Up Pace[/B]

A month and a half before the referendum on the historic 'name' agreement with Greece, the campaigns in support of the deal and for a boycott of the plebiscite are heating up

Although the campaign for the referendum on Macedonia’s ‘name’ deal with Greece officially kicks off 20 days before the vote on September 30, the battle to sway public opinion has already picked up pace, mainly on social media.

The propaganda campaigns so far have mainly been waged by the Social Democrat-led government which sees the ‘name’ deal as a historic opportunity for the country to unblock its EU and NATO accession bids, and those who propose a boycott, deeming the agreement with Greece to change the country’s name treasonous.

The latest addition to the pro-deal campaign was a*promotional video posted on the Twitter and Facebook*page of Prime Minister Zoran Zaev, which put forward the message that “Macedonia will become part of united Europe” and ended with the slogan: “It is time for a decision! We are moving forward, into NATO and into the EU.”

The government on its website has already published the text of the deal with Greece, along with a separate*page of ‘facts’ on the agreement, containing the main bullet points that address many popular fears and misconceptions about it.

One of the bullet points states that “with article 7 of the agreement, Macedonian identity is protected”.

The prime minister and other government officials and supporters have been urging people to thoroughly inspect the text of the deal, using the Twitter hashtags “#ФактиЗаДоговорот” [Facts About the Agreement] and “#МКвоЕУ” and “#МКвоНАТО” [MK in EU and MK in NATO].

The government campaign will pick up pace by the end of this week and the start of the next, Zaev’s political advisor Bojan Maricic said on Tuesday.

“The campaign will be promotional and informative,” Maricic promised.
It will mainly focus on dispelling false information about the agreement in order to convince people to come out and vote, he added.

The referendum on September 30 will ask voters if they back Macedonia's accession to NATO and the EU by accepting the name agreement with Greece that was signed in June.

Under the deal, Macedonia agreed to change its name to Republic of North Macedonia, while Greece agreed to lift its veto on Macedonia's NATO and EU integration.

For the deal to be fully implemented, Macedonians must show they support it in a referendum.

On the other side of the spectrum, the most active camp on social networks has been the informal movement Bojkotiram (I’m Boycotting), which so far has not named any of its official representatives.

The movement uses slogans like “Never North, Always Macedonia”, referring to the proposed name change in the agreement, as well as “Let’s Protect Our Sacred Name”.

Among those who have been spreading its messages are university professors, Macedonian diaspora members as well as mainly lower-profile politicians from non-parliamentary political parties.

[U]Opposition stalls on referendum[/U]

One element that is missing at the moment is a clear stand from the main opposition VMRO DPMNE party.*

The right-wing party’s leader, Hristijan Mickovski has previously attacked the name agreement as a capitulation, but has also kept insisting that the party has yet to decide whether to participate in the referendum, thus boosting its turnout and credibility.

The VMRO DPMNE has so far refused to urge its supporters to vote according to their own views, but has also not officially called for a boycott of the referendum either.

“I think that VMRO DPMNE will stall [the decision] for a bit longer. The party may even choose not to have an official campaign,” political analyst Petar Arsovski said on Tuesday.

“However, its prominent members, as is already apparent on the ground, will support the ‘Bojkotiram’ movement. I think that the party will manoeuvre between no campaign at all and a secretive support for the boycott,” he added.

So far it appears that the party’s leadership is divided on the issue.

A member of VMRO DPMNE’s executive committee, Toni Mihajlovski, and a party MP and former Foreign Minister Antonijo Milososki, have called on social media for a boycott.

On the other hand, the deputy secretary general of the party, Petar Bogojevski, and another executive committee member, Kostadin Bogdanov, have opted for participation, insisting that people should take responsibility for the future of their country.

[url]http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/article/old-electoral-roll-problems-plague-macedonia-referendum-08-15-2018[/url]

[B]Old Electoral Roll Problems Plague Macedonia Referendum[/B]

Despite the change in power and many previous check-ups of the electoral roll to remove fictive voters, Macedonia’s list of voter remains marred by old problems, civil associations warn as the country prepares for the September 30 “name” referendum

Fictive voters registered at fake addresses, voters registered at more than one address and those who are unjustly removed from the electoral roll. These are just some of the many flaws that civic associations say are still contained in the voters list ahead of the historic referendum.

The NGO Civil-Center for Freedom, which is as the forefront of Macedonia’s election monitoring processes, reported of dozens of citizens who approached them in the past few days, complaining of variety of problems, including reappearance of fake voter at their addresses.

“In one case, a citizen wrote to us saying that he immediately contacted the Electoral Commission, DIK, to report several ‘uninvited guests’ at his address”, Civil wrote in a press release, saying that these problems are still not properly addressed.

“The DIK, as in the previous election processes, told him to call the Interior Ministry, MVR. The MVR, on the other hand, are referring them back to the State Election Commission, and this goes on. The voters are hearing the same story: someone else is always responsible”.

The controversy surrounding the electoral roll, which, same as at previous elections, contains around 1.8 million voters, is all but new.

The OSCE, which has monitored Macedonian elections in the past, has described it as unusually large for a country of just over 2 million people, according to the latest headcount carried out in 2002 which is now largely outdated.

Before the change in power in 2017, the now ruling Social Democrats were harshly accusing the now opposition VMRO DPMNE party of deliberately bloating the electoral roll in order to rig past elections.

But after several check-ups of the roll conducted in 2015 and 2016 in order to assure fair voting, the roll still has roughly the same number of voters, which according to Xhabir Deralla, the head of Civil, points to lack of will to truly address the problems.

“A non-purified electoral roll like this can certainly have a negative impact on future election processes, as well as on the forthcoming referendum. Just look at the number of voters –more that 1.8 million. The estimates of relevant experts are that Macedonia has not more than 1.6 million residents, including the new-born”, Deralla said.

But the recently appointed head of the Electoral Commission, Oliver Derkovski insisted that the number of 1.8 million is real.

“Yes, in several occasions in the past I have been claiming that the number is real and that the entire confusion was created, probably out of some political reasons. However, our work is to leave politics aside because this is a statistical operation” Derkovski told Radio Free Europe on Sunday.

Derkovski was appointed earlier this month after the main political parties, in a hurry for the referendum, decided to use the old model of appointing electoral commission members at a proposition of the parties.

This model means that while the ruling Social Democrats have the right to propose more members of the commission, the opposition proposes its head.

In September 30, Macedonians are to vote at a historic “name” referendum which if successful will remove the biggest obstacle for joining NATO and EU.

Under the deal, Macedonia agreed to change its name to Republic of North Macedonia, while Greece agreed to lift its long-standing veto on Macedonia's NATO and EU integration.

For the deal to be fully implemented, Macedonians must show they support it at the plebiscite.

[url]https://www.24.mk/dimitrov-nikoj-nema-da-ja-deli-i-rasparchuva-makedonija-naprotiv-zemjava-konechno-kje-se-zacvrsti[/url]

Димитров: Никој нема да ја дели и распарчува Македонија, напротив земјава конечно ќе се зацврсти

„Со Договорот со Грција, Македонија се зацврстува на светската мапа како држава. Никој нема да не дели и распарчува, напротив земјава станува полноправна членка на НАТО и почнува преговори со ЕУ“, изјави шефот на македонската дипломатија, Никола Димитров во интервју за ТВ 24.

Димитров најави дека владата ќе води информативна кампања за референдумот, но не знаеше колку пари ќе бидат потрошени. На опозициската ВМРО-ДПМНЕ и порача да делуваат поодговорно, бидејќи овде не се работи за дневна политика, туку за иднината на Македонија.

Погледнете го комплетното интервју на министерот Никола Димитров за ТВ 24

[QUOTE=Carlin15;175831][url]https://www.24.mk/dimitrov-nikoj-nema-da-ja-deli-i-rasparchuva-makedonija-naprotiv-zemjava-konechno-kje-se-zacvrsti[/url]

Димитров: Никој нема да ја дели и распарчува Македонија, напротив земјава конечно ќе се зацврсти

„Со Договорот со Грција, Македонија се зацврстува на светската мапа како држава. Никој нема да не дели и распарчува, напротив земјава станува полноправна членка на НАТО и почнува преговори со ЕУ“, изјави шефот на македонската дипломатија, Никола Димитров во интервју за ТВ 24.

Димитров најави дека владата ќе води информативна кампања за референдумот, но не знаеше колку пари ќе бидат потрошени. На опозициската ВМРО-ДПМНЕ и порача да делуваат поодговорно, бидејќи овде не се работи за дневна политика, туку за иднината на Македонија.

Погледнете го комплетното интервју на министерот Никола Димитров за ТВ 24[/QUOTE]

Or in other words, what he is implying is if we don't accept the agreement, there's no guarantee that the country will continue to exist as it is afterwards... Fucken treasonous piece of shit.

[B]Да беше против референдумот, Мицкоски до сега ќе се изјаснеше[/B]

Мицкоски несвесно потврдува една вистина, дека неискажаното честопати е погласно од искажаното.

Напишано од Софија Куновска

Договорот со Република Бугарија е лош. Договорот со Република Грција исто така има голем број недостатоци. Оваа влада не беше највешт преговарач, иако Димитров честопати се обидуваше да ги поправа грешките на Заев. Настрана фактот што државата е донесена „во ќош“ како резултат на владеењето на Груевски и неговата влада повеќе од деценија. Тие штети се непоправливи. Раководена од сегашната влада, пак, Република Македонија тоне во скандали, неефикасност на администрацијата, лоши сервисни услуги на јавните претпријатија, срамна кадровска политика, како и финансиска неизвесност. Државата е одамна „на колена“.

Но наспроти сѐ, референдумското прашање е прашање што секој од нас мора искрено да си го постави и да донесе зрела одлука. Одлуката, сосема извесно, нема да нè направи среќни, но прашањето треба прецизно да си го поставиме. Дали треба да си дадеме последна шанса? Колку и да не ни се допаѓа, изборот е дали на метастазираната Македонија ќе ѝ дозволиме да се лечи. Протоколите не се ни малку пријатни и подразбираат хемотерапии, зрачења и хируршки зафати, а во крајна нужда можеби и масло од канабис, варова вода и што ли не. А што е наспроти тоа, секој може сам да претпостави.

Многумина, меѓу кои и Мицкоски, сè уште калкулираат и во некакви обиди за пазар го подготвуваат ставот кој отприлика би гласел дека референдумот е многу поголемо и позначајно прашање од партиските политика на оваа или онаа опција и мора да се биде на висина на задачата. Но, Мицкоски несвесно потврдува една вистина, дека неискажаното честопати е погласно од искажаното.

Во случајов едно е сосем јасно: да беше против референдумот, Мицкоски до сега ќе се изјаснеше!

(ФБ статус на авторот)

URL:
[url]https://plusinfo.mk/%D0%B4%D0%B0-%D0%B1%D0%B5%D1%88%D0%B5-%D0%BF%D1%80%D0%BE%D1%82%D0%B8%D0%B2-%D1%80%D0%B5%D1%84%D0%B5%D1%80%D0%B5%D0%BD%D0%B4%D1%83%D0%BC%D0%BE%D1%82-%D0%BC%D0%B8%D1%86%D0%BA%D0%BE%D1%81%D0%BA/[/url]

There was a funny meme I forgot where I saw it but it was like this:

VMRO-DPMNE's position concerning the name over the years

2010: Referendum
2011: Referendum
2012: Referendum
2013: Referendum
2014: Referendum
2015: Referendum
2016: Referendum
2017: Referendum
2018: We have yet to make a decision