Former Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov, who instituted the policy of vetoing Macedonia in the EU until it agrees to make major concessions with its national identity and history, warned that the two nations are on the verge of beginning to hate each other.

Borisov blamed his political opponent, President Rumen Radev, who now de-facto runs the Government, of mismanaging the negotiations with Macedonia. Bulgaria has a caretaker Government appointed by Radev which avoids directly entering in negotiations as it only has a mandate to organize early elections.

The policy which is being led now drives us to hate each other. We will hate each other. Why will we work on European projects then, if they take us to a country that hates us?, Borisov said. He again insisted that he and Zoran Zaev are working to turn things around.

Borisov and Zaev signed a treaty in 2017 which opened the way to Bulgaria to demand concessions through a commission made up of historians from the two sides. As Bulgarian demands grew in scale, and even Zaev refused to implement them, Bulgaria moved to veto Macedonia and the public discourse between the two countries and the peoples, badly deteriorated. Borisov warned that the hatred could last for decades, and laid all the blame at Radev’s feet.