Bulgarian President Rumen Radev said he disagrees with the renaming of Macedonia into North Macedonia, as this could cause problems with Bulgarian part of the region of Macedonia. According to Radev, the Euro-Atlantic integration of the remaining Balkan countries is happening too fast, and without ensuring consensus in Bulgaria.

– You can’t resolve problems which have accumulated over centuries in six months. President Radev said in an interview with Darik radio, objecting to the speed with which the Borisov Government is moving to approve the treaty with Macedonia, without discussing matters internally in Bulgaria, or with Greece. Bulgaria holds a piece of the region of Macedonia which was partitioned in 1913 – the Pirin Macedonia region – and occasionally Bulgarian politicians object that the name North Macedonia could be seen as raising territorial claims by the Republic of Macedonia on Pirin Macedonia.

Radev, the Socialist general who is the main challenger to conservative Prime Minister Boyko Borisov’s power in Bulgaria, said that with a more active Bulgarian role in the Macedonian name talks, Borisov could also have been nominated for the Nobel peace prize, along with Prime Ministers Zoran Zaev and Alexis Tsipras.