Serbian Parliament Speaker Ivica Dacic said that Zoran Zaev is “not that ignorant of history” and realizes that his recent comments on Bulgaria are false. Dacic was responding to Zaev’s comments that Bulgaria did not occupy but administer Macedonia in World War Two, and later helped liberate it, and that Yugoslavia stood in the way of closer Macedonian ties with Bulgaria. According to Dacic, Zaev knows this is not true, but needs to say whatever will get Bulgaria to allow the opening of EU accession talks.

Bulgarians were on the side of Nazi Germany, of Hitler. We in the south know how cruel the Bulgarian crimes were. He is now spitting on their own anti-fascist struggle. Yugoslavia is gone now, what are you waiting for? If you are so eager to embrace Bulgaria, do it, why did you wait until 2020?, Dacic said in a comment aimed at Zaev.

Serbia and Bulgaria fought bitterly over Macedonia a century ago and continue to try and exert influence.