Healthcare Minister Venko Filipce joined Defense Minister Radmila Sekerinska as two voices of support for Prime Minister Zoran Zaev and his new, extremely conciliatory position on Bulgaria.

The two stand against much of the ruling SDSM party, especially its “urban wing” they both belong to, where former President Branko Crvenkovski is leading calls to oust Zaev from the party and the Government and current President Stevo Pendarovski declared Zaev’s position “revisionism of history”.

Prime Minister Zoran Zaev made a number of difficult but fully correct decisions in the past three years which secured the future of our country. What he and his team achieved in the past negotiations and in the progress toward EU integration deserves utmost respect. We must continue on this path and wisely build friendships while protecting our interests and advancing toward the European Union. The policies of openness and dialogue resolved decades old disputes and we must continue in that direction, said Filipce, who is currently spending the PR capital he built at the initial stage of the coronavirus crisis to attack the opposition (often with lies) and now to support Zaev.

In his BGNES interview, Zaev conceded to Bulgaria that its occupation of Macedonia during the Second World War was mere “administration”, said that Bulgaria should not be viewed as a fascist power during the war but as subsequent liberator of parts of Macedonia and blurred the distinction between the Macedonian and the Bulgarian nation.