A thousand-hour protest against the change of the Macedonian name occurred on the streets of Skopje. The strike also demanded early elections because of the state of the economy.

Thousands of Macedonian flags and flags of the opposition gathered outside the building of the Council of Ministers in Skopje

Some of the protesters wore posters saying "Macedonia will win".

The leader of the opposition VMRO-DPMNE joined the protest.

Opposition party leader Hristijan Mickoski said his party, VMRO-DPMNE, would not support any constitutional bid to change the name of the country.

The VMRO-DPMNE party, which ran from 2006 to 2017, organized the big anti-government demonstration last night against the one-year left-wing government and demanded early elections to be convened in March or April next year.

The opposition says that the government is incompetent, ruining the country's economy, lowering wages and pensions, allowing corruption to flourish, and damaging national interests, negotiating with Greece on a possible new name for the country, AP said.