The appointment of former Prime Minister Vlado Buckovski as Zaev’s envoy to Bulgaria reminded the public of some of his recent comments in which he, like Zaev, pre-emptively accepted Bulgaria’s positions.

If we begin from the 2017 treaty with Bulgaria, we officially accepted that we have a common history. That is an undeniable fact, but if we pursue the claim that we are one nation in two countries, at this time, it will cause more harm than benefit in Macedonia. I support the position that is not a majority one. That between 1944 and 1991, there was a strong propaganda at work and it brought the natural allies, the Macedonians and the Bulgarians further apart. Doubtless we have a common history, doubtless the Bulgarian nation, the Bulgarian people, were created before the Macedonian. That is the official position of Bulgaria, that it doesn’t object to the creation of the Macedonian nation from 1944, Buckovski said.

Bulgaria is currently taking the position that it will accept Macedonians declaring as such, and stating that they use the Macedonian language, but if Macedonia agrees that both are derived from the Bulgarian nation and the Bulgarian language relatively recently in historic terms..