Foreign diplomats warned that the policy has reduced international sympathy for Macedonia's position in the naming dispute with Greece. SDSM, was opposed to the project and has alleged that the monuments in the project could have cost six to ten times less than what the government paid, which may already have exceeded 600 million euros. Additionally, VMRO-DPMNE has been criticized for its hard-line stance against the Prespa agreement that was reached between the Republic of Macedonia and Greece, which resolved the long-standing Macedonia Naming Dispute by renaming the country as North Macedonia and giving up all claims to ancient Macedonian heritage. On 16 October 2018, US Assistant Secretary of State Wess Mitchell sent a letter to VMRO-DPMNE leader Hristijan Mickoski, in which he expresses the disappointment of the United States with the positions of the party's leadership, including him personally, regarding its position against the Prespa agreement and asks to "set aside partisan interests" and work to get the name change approved. Mickoski expressed his hope that the Republic of Macedonia will be very soon a part of the NATO and EU families, "but proud and dignified, not humiliated, disfigured and disgraced." In 2019, Mickoski has been criticized by the SDSM Deputy Foreign Minister Andrej Žernovski, that Mickoski has insisted, if he becomes a prime minister, after receiving a start date for accession negotiations on the EU membership of North Macedonia, the friendship agreements with the neighboring Greece and Bulgaria, signed by Zoran Zaev's government, would be denounced. "Youth Force Union" ( ), also known as UMS (), is the youth wing organization of the VMRO-DPMNE. It considers itself a continuation of historical youth organizations which spread the ideals of VMRO for independent Macedonia. A number of projects arising from the Youth Force Union were conducted in the past 20 years. Formed in 1991, the most remarkable and influential President of YFU was Filip Petrovski; he was its leader in period 1997–2000, and member of parliament 1998–2001.