The Central Committee of the Macedonian nationalist opposition VMRO-DPMNE party sanctioned three of its high-ranking officials who secured the majority to the ruling coalition in the parliament by supporting the Skopje – Athens deal on the country’s new name, the Beta news agency reported on Tuesday.

Mitko Jancev, deputy leader of the party, was dismissed from the post, while two other high-ranking officials were expelled from the party.

Another VMRPO-DPMNE deputy leader, Aleksandar Nikolski, explained the move as the consequence of “their strong cooperation with (Macedonian Prime Minister Zoran) Zaev, as well as their organising “a group for pressure, blackmail, threats and bribe of the deputies from the VMRO-DPMNE and its coalition ‘For Better Macedonia’, all in order to help reach the two-thirds majority for the constitutional changes.”

The Prime ministers of Macedonia and Greece, Zoran Zaev and Alexis Tsipras, had agreed in June to end the 27-year-old dispute over the name of the former Yugoslav republic and change it to the Republic of North Macedonia.

The agreement opened Skopje the doors to both NATO membership and the European Union accession negotiations.

However, in both countries, right-wing nationalists had staged street protests against the agreement.

Nikolski told reporters that the three officials were sanctioned “because of their actions, which went against the VMRO-DPMNE interest, but also against the interest of Macedonia.”

He asked the state prosecutors’ office to launch a probe into allegations about the threats, blackmail and bribe of the deputies, while the Central Committee demanded the members of the coalition ‘For Better Macedonia’ who voted in favour of the new name deal “to immediately resign because they worked against the people’s will.”

The parliament decision was necessary after the last month’s referendum had failed to attract enough voters, mostly due to the VMRO-DPMNE call for a boycott.

Zaev’s coalition was nine votes short of the two-thirds majority in the 120-seat parliament, but managed to win the support of some opposition deputies and secured the 80 ‘yes’ votes it needed for the deal to be adopted.

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