We are currently in a situation of veto. With the solution that we managed with great effort to insert into the negotiating framework, the negotiations will start only after the Bulgarians enter the constitution of our neighbor. They have not yet been included and negotiations have not started. It is a state of veto, said Bulgarian President Rumen Radev before the meeting of the European Council in Brussels, answering a reporter’s question about the latest developments in relations between Sofia and Skopje and whether Bulgaria is planning a new veto.

The issue of Macedonia is not on the council’s agenda, but Radev says he will initiate it.

I will use the opportunity to raise the issue of the increased aggression and escalating anti-Bulgarian campaign in the Republic of Macedonia, which already leads to hate crimes – arson, shooting in our cultural clubs, and physical violence against Macedonian Bulgarians and Bulgarian citizens. I will call on my counterparts for greater solidarity and engagement. With the same energy as they demand from us to speed up the process of the European integration of the Republic of Macedonia, the EU should impose monitoring and a guarantee of respect for the rights of the Macedonian Bulgarians, said Radev.

As he pointed out, Sofia had to explain to the European partners the problem with the rights of the Bulgarians in the Republic of Macedonia with two consecutive vetoes for Skopje.

He expects a categorical institutional reaction from the Macedonian authorities to reveal the sanctioning of the perpetrators, but says that at the moment he does not see such political will in Skopje, and that, according to him, only prolongs the problems.