Macedonian Parliament voted on Monday in favour of holding a popular vote on September 30 to decide on the country's new name and kick off its Euro-Atlantic integration, the Beta news agency reported.

In a session held on Monday afternoon, 68 MPs in a 120-seat parliament voted in favour of the referendum and its question: “Are you in favour of the EU and NATO membership with the acceptance of the Agreement between the republics of Macedonia and Greece?”

The largest opposition party, the nationalist VMRO-DPMNE, and an ethnic Albanian political organisation left the session before the vote took place, opposing the deal with Athens which will see Macedonia officially renamed North Macedonia, removing the obstacles Greece had put to Skopje’s Euro-Atlantic integration 27 years ago.

Macedonian government decided that the ballot would be advisory, meaning that half of some 900,000 eligible voters need to cast their ballots for the vote to be valid, with 50 percent of them needed to pass the proposal.

“We have created conditions for Macedonia to become part of the European family,” MP Tomislav Tuntev of the ruling Social Democrats (SDSM) said in parliament.

The two parties opposing the deal with Greece, and consequently the popular vote on the issue, accused the government of “acting against the country’s interests,” adding that the referendum’s questions are “ambiguous and manipulative”.

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