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Now, with Greece caught up in a debt crisis, you might expect the Macedonians to attempt to gain the upper hand by striking a more mature attitude. But no. Not only are they in the midst of renaming airports, motorways and other structures after Alexander or his father, they are now about to erect what amounts to a giant bronze middle finger aimed at Greece. The Alexander statue has undermined friends of Macedonia who have previously sought to defend the country against the Greeks. (The monument is part of the grandiose Skopje 2014 project, which we wrote about here .)

Macedonians are split over the issue. But most agree that it has done Nikola Gruevski, the newly re-elected populist prime minister, no harm at all to be seen as standing firm against the Greeks. It will be interesting to see now whether the Greeks go apoplectic or decide to play it cool. (The government does, after all, have one or two other things to worry about.) As for the Macedonians, they will no doubt respond to any whiff of Greek anger by pointing to an equestrian statue of Alexander in Edinburgh .

Incidentally, this silly row does at least underline one thing. Just as the western Balkans, following the accession to the EU of Romania and Bulgaria in 2007, are gradually being reabsorbed into Europe, Greece, which was separated from the Balkan mainstream after the second world war, is being reintegrated into it.

Source: The Economist