VMRO-DPMNE President Hristijan Mickoski called on the Bulgarian Government to elevate the rights of ethnic Macedonians in Bulgaria, if it really wants to improve relations with Macedonia. Mickoski spoke on the day of when Bulgarian Prime Minister Kiril Petkov came to Bitola to open a cultural center named after controversial World War Two commander Vanco Mihajlov.

Immediately after the center’s opening, Petkov should go to Blagoevgrad and Sandanski and open cultural enters of Macedonians in Bulgaria, who have won so many law suits at the European Court of Human Rights, citing the refusal of the Bulgarian state to let them register their organizations. And the few Bulgarians who were registered in the incomplete and manipulative census in Macedonia should also advise Petkov to help the Macedonians in Bulgaria, Mickoski said, naming cities in the region of Pirin Macedonia in Bulgaria.

Mickoski condemned Bulgaria for blocking Macedonia’s EU accession process which, he said, undermines the perspectives for all Macedonian citizens, be they Macedonians, Albanians, Turks, Serbs, Vlachs..

The opposition leader also condemned the Kovacevski Government for its latest setback – where Bulgaria refused a proposal they made to resolve the dispute, meaning that additional concessions will be asked from Macedonia. “It is really unseemly for a Foreign Minister to keep talking about this proposal, three months after Bulgaria apparently rejected it”, Mickoski said.