She argues that the protocol was not negotiated or approved by the government, was not ratified by the Parliament, and not published in the Official Gazette.
Popovska also claims that the protocol exceeds the legal framework of an executive act pertaining to a single clause of a bilateral treaty, arguing that an act of secondary legislation does not carry the legal authority to mandate changes to the constitution’s preamble, to national legislation, or to matters of identity. She says it causes serious harm to the identity of the Macedonian people, language, and state, and serves as an obstacle to North Macedonia’s international positioning and strategic development, since it has been implicitly embedded in the country’s negotiating framework and other key documents in the EU integration package.