One of the demands that the Bulgarian would-be coalition partners accepted is that the country demands Macedonia secret police dossiers from the Communist era. Bulgaria is blocking Macedonia from opening its EU accession talks and lists a number of demands aimed at the Macedonian national identity and history.

Macedonia was a Communist police state from the late 1940ies until the early 1990ies, and the influence of the secret police continues to press on Macedonian politics. Some of the violations of human rights in this period targeted Macedonian citizens who self-declared as ethnic Bulgarians, or, in some cases, this label was put on political opponents.

The process of lustration Macedonia began a decade ago showed that in some instances, such as that of former Interior Minister Ljubomir Frckoski, citizens were wiretapped because they had friends of business contacts in Bulgaria. This process was cut short with the 2015 Colored Revolution.