Addressing a crowd during a rally ahead of the September 30 referendum on the Prespes agreement with Greece, the Prime Minister of FYROM, Zoran Zaev defended the deal while stressing that they were “Macedonians”, saying: “With the agreement, we protected our Macedonian identity”.

Mr Zaev contradicted the narrative Greek PM Alexis Tsipras and his Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias attempted to put forward, as he unequivocally stated that he and his countrymen were “Macedonians” “with our own territory and the Macedonian language. With the history, culture, and heritage of FYROM”.
Referring to the September 30 referendum, Zoran Zaev once again referred to “European Macedonia” and not Northern Macedonia as provided for in the Prespes Agreement and added that “we are entering Europe equally with all NATO and EU member states”.