Foreign Minister Nikola Dimitrov apologized to Serbia and insisted he did not fully read a Facebook comment he liked, in which one of his supporters wrote that “Serbia will go to Hell”.

The comment was shared as Dimitrov faced a very difficult situation with his failure to get European Union ministers to approve the opening of accession talks with Macedonia. He posted a comment from Jean Paul Sartre, saying that “Only the guy who isn’t rowing has time to rock the boat”, an apparent dig at France, which prompted a lot of comments with criticism aimed at President Macron for not allowing the opening of EU accession talks. A supporter, one Lujza Dimitrova, posted a comment that contains a feel-good poem, but also states that “We Will Win and Serbia will Go To Hell. Sabotage by Serbia is historic!” While cranks post comments to the pages of politicians all the time, anger was provoked when Dimitrov actually “liked” this comment.
Dimitrov said that he mistakenly liked the comment without reading it in full, that he wanted to like the poem, but not the hateful remarks against Serbia.

Ivan Stoiljkovic, the head of the Democratic Party of Serbs in Macedonia, responded with outrage, accusing Dimitrov of being a Vrhovist (a Bulgarian supporter) among other epithets. “This will spark a fury of reaction among Serbis in Macedonia and is an unprecedented diplomatic incident and a provocation against Serbs and Serbia”.