Agence France-Presse reported that Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos. Mitsotakis warned "North Macedonia" not to enter the European Union if it changed its name. According to reports, North Macedonian Prime Minister Mitzkoski believes that although he recognizes the legal name of his homeland as "North Macedonia", he will only habitually use the name Macedonia in public, and the most recent is that the first female president of North Macedonia, Daveva, directly called her country's legal name "Republic of Macedonia" at her inauguration ceremony, which caused dissatisfaction in Greece.
When North Macedonia first began to gain independence from Yugoslavia, its legal name was "Republic of Macedonia", which caused discontent in Greece, which was at loggerheads for many years. In 2018, Greece and North Macedonia reached the Prespa Agreement, which changed the word "Macedonia" to "North Macedonia", ending years of dispute between the two countries.
So why did Greece not allow North Macedonia to use the name "Macedonia"?
The current North Macedonia is actually independent from the former Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, which is divided into seven parts: Montenegro, Croatia, and North Macedonia.
North Macedonia became independent from Yugoslavia, but it became independent later than Greece
On the other hand, we had city-states such as Sparta and Athens in ancient Greece, and later the Kingdom of Macedonia rose and unified the Greek city-states during the period of Philip II.
Moreover, Greece now also has a province called Macedonia, and Greece believes that if North Macedonia uses the name "Republic of Macedonia", it will imply that Greece has a claim to its territory and historical and cultural heritage, so Greece strongly opposes it.
The Kingdom of Macedonia originated in the territory of what is now Greece
Judging from the map, the Macedonian kingdom of North Macedonia and Alexandria does overlap in terms of territory, but this territory has changed hands many times in history, and the name Macedonia and Greece has disappeared for a long time in history, although Greece and North Macedonia have been restored, but Greece preceded North Macedonia, and we generally think that the history of the former Macedonian Kingdom belongs to Greek history.
The Kingdom of Macedonia united the Greek city-states
Greece believes that the name Macedonia already belongs to the history of Greece, and if North Macedonia is renamed the "Republic of Macedonia", then whose history does Alexander's empire belong to? Moreover, the historical kingdom of Macedonia did originate from present-day Greek history.