The plan to hold a joint honoring of Ss. Cyril and Methodius on May 24 between Macedonia and Bulgaria will not be implemented this year, because of the coronavirus epidemic. The two countries already called off the joint honoring of Goce Delcev on the day of his death – May 4 – as tensions between Macedonia and Bulgaria are on the rise.

Presidents Stevo Pendaroski and Rumen Radev were supposed to have a joint honoring of Ss. Cyril and Methodius in Rome, where the two countries traditionally had separate celebrations of the sainted brothers. Italy is obviously badly hit by the coronavirus.

Bulgaria insists, as part of its push to redefine the Macedonian national identity, that the two countries have a shared past and must honor shared heroes together. Bulgarian politicians have threatened to veto Macedonia from opening EU accession talks unless enough concessions on historic and national identity issues are made.