With the general elections in Bulgaria drawing closer (April 4) pressure is growing on Zoran Zaev to deliver on what he promised to Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov.
Borisov was the only person to congratulate Zaev on his re-election as party leader over the weekend, and in a joint statement with Zaev, he said that now is the time that an agreement is reached between the two countries. Bulgaria is blocking Macedonia from opening EU accession talks and demands major concessions on issues of national identity and history.
Zaev accepted all of the Bulgarian demands in his BGNES interview, but did not implement them after facing street protests organized by VMRO-DPMNE and a split in his own party. Now, after a show of force in the SDSM party, where he got 60,000 out of the 70,000 registered members to support him, and after he got his narrow majority in Parliament confirmed, the pressure is on again.
The memorandum Bulgaria sent to the European Union to outline its positions was leaked recently and it declares that the Macedonian nation only separated itself from the Bulgarians in 1944 and that a thorough rewriting of Macedonian history is needed.
VMRO-DPMNE leader Hristijan Mickoski warned that Zaev was making outlandish promises to Bulgarian politicians that he will support their positions as soon as he is politically able to do so. Mickoski cited Bulgarian sources that Zaev made many promises to gain their support and that “now Bulgaria simply wants what Zaev promised them”.
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