Historical Context

The Prespa Agreement is considered as a critical incident in modern politics of Greece and North Macedonia. It basically ended the name dispute commonly referred to as the Macedonian issue that has been arguably one of the most incomprehensible issues in Europe. For more than 25 years after the dismantlement of Yugoslavia and the creation of a new State in the northwest of Greece the two neighbours failed to reach an agreement about its name. Macedonia, the name the new State chose for itself, had strong geographical and historical connotations that the Greeks could not accept, so they only recognised it as ‘Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia’ (FYROM). But even though its official name stayed as such, over the years, the new country was commonly referred to as ‘Macedonia’ all over the world. Nevertheless, the potential of a NATO membership of ‘FYROM’ brought the name issue on the table in an urgent manner.

Political consensus was finally reached in June 2018 when the Agreement was signed by the Foreign Ministers of Greece, Nikos Kotzias and his North Macedonian counterpart, Nikola Dimitrov in the presence of PM Zoran Zaev and PM Alexis Tsipras at the lake of Prespa. The long-term dispute between Greece and North Macedonia (the name that replaced both FYROM and Macedonia) ended. It was a historical moment for both countries that entailed elements of an authentic compromise and common understanding.

The Prespa Agreement forced Greece to accept the existence of a ‘Macedonian’ nationality and a ‘Macedonian’ language and a commitment not to veto Northern Macedonia's entry in the NATO alliance. Macedonia in turn had to change its name to Northern Macedonia following a constitutional change and to abandon any historical references to the Ancient (Greek) history of Macedonia. The conclusion of the agreement was politically painful, as it was met with strong opposition by political parties and local communities in both countries. It further had to be adopted first by a referendum in North Macedonia and then by parliamentary votes in both countries in a context of intensified political turmoil.

The aim of this chapter is not to discuss the Prespa Agreement itself. Instead, the Prespa Agreement is used as a good case to critically analyse and theorise on the issue of modern political disinformation, propaganda and xenophobic populism.