What will it take for Zoran Zaev to respond to at least one of the insults from Bulgarian politicians, asked opposition leader Hristijan Mickoski. Zaev was brutally insulted by Bulgarian Defense Minister Krasimir Karakacanov last week, who called Zaev a Bulgarian whose brain typically “runs a day late”. Zaev responded with a carefully measured statement in which he insisted that “he is a Macedonian”.

How many insults will we have to endure before there is at least one word of condemnation or response from the Government and from Zoran Zaev? Zaev, you can write ten times that you are a Macedonian, but your character doesn’t show it, Mickoski responded.

Bulgaria demands that Zaev’s regime cracks down on individual Macedonian citizens who share critical comments on Bulgaria over the social media, while at the same time top Bulgarian officials, with Karakacanov at the front, are freely issuing threats and insults toward Macedonia.