The Bulgarian government has been allocating budget money for five years to finance the “Institute” of Krasimir Karakachanov’s party, whose goal is to “exposing the character of the national liberation movement of Bulgarians in Macedonia”, reports “Deutsche Welle”.

It is about the association “Macedonian Scientific Institute” (MSI) which, among other things, aims to “shed light on the violent denationalization of the Bulgarian population in Macedonia”, which is directly related to the VMRO-BND party of the current Bulgarian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defense Karakachanov. The headquarters of the “Institute” is located in the building of VMRO-BND in Sofia.

Bulgarian media report the research of the Bulgarian “Slobodna Evropa”, which states that for that purpose so far about 220 thousand euros have been allocated from the money of taxpayers in Bulgaria.

The payment from the budget funds started in parallel with Karakachanov’s support for the government of Boyko Borisov and GERB in the period 2014-2017. The institute was established in 1990 as the successor of the 1923 Macedonian Scientific Institute.

The budget item through which the Bulgarian Ministry of Education allocates funds for this Institute is the same through which institutions such as the Red Cross, the associations of persons with disabilities, the Bulgarian Orthodox Church and others are financed.

The “Slobodna Evropa” research reveals that the MSI is not accredited as a scientific institute at all, despite its name. Its goals stated in the explanation are: “shedding light on the social opinion in the country and abroad, ie the violent denationalization of the Bulgarian population in Macedonia; exposing the falsifications of the historical past and exposing the character of the national liberation movement of the Bulgarians in Macedonia”.

The attempt of the journalists to get an opinion on how this association spends the state money, both from the members of the Institute and from the MPs of VMRO in the Bulgarian Parliament, ended in failure. Karakachanov’s party MP Julijan Angelov said that “there is no offense in the Macedonian Institute receiving money” and that “Slobodna Evropa” has a problem “if it continues to please Macedonians and Skopje.”