Papandreou: I understand the people who are protesting, but there is no solution without the term Macedonia

If there is mood in the current government in Skopje, we should use that, said former Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou in a conversation with Greek journalists following parliamentary hearings, the online edition of the newspaper To Vima reported. According to the Greek news agency ANA-MPA, he emphasized that the solution will certainly include the term Macedonia.

-I understand the attitude of the people who reacted and who participated in the protests, but I think that there can be no solution for the name of FYROM without including the term Macedonia. We need to really put the dilemma ahead of us. The ideal is one thing, but the possible is another, said the former Greek prime minister.

According to him, one should see what are the real options, and they, as he points out, are two.

– Either the temporary name FYROM will remain, which gradually will disappear and only Macedonia will remain, or we will have to choose a complex name that will guarantee all our sovereign rights, the question with the Great idea, the symbols, etc. Otherwise, we will be continuously under pressure and held responsible for not helping NATO and the European Union, that is, we are part of the problem, Papandreou told Greek journalists.

The former Greek Prime Minister, before Greek journalists, mentioned the period when he was Foreign Minister (1999-2004) and said the two sides were very close to the name agreement “Upper Macedonia”, but, as he states, was not achieved due to internal political turmoil with the northern neighbor and the reactions of the Albanians.