It’s not bravery to abandon all red lines and to sign everything, every demand that is put before you, said VMRO-DPMNE leader Hristijan Mickoski in a direct message to Zoran Zaev after his numerous concessions to neighboring countries.

Zaev says that he is proud to make brave decisions, but the whole of Macedonia asks him to stop being so brave. What he calls bravery is to the detriment of our people and our state. Tsar Boris and Ljubco Georgievski did not do more for Bulgaria than you did. Bravery is to protect the interests of your own people. Bravery is to bring your country to the EU without making concessions, Mickoski added during his rally in Bitola. Zaev signed the 2017 Friendship Treaty with Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov which led to open-ended Bulgarian claims against Macedonian national identity and history.

Zaev himself recently heated up the dispute with Bulgaria by promising to revise history books and to remove any mention of the Fascist character of the Bulgarian state during the Second World War, when Bulgaria briefly took Macedonia from Serbia. He made this announcement even though Bulgaria does not even have a political Government that would be in a position to accept this concession and lift its veto against Macedonia’s EU accession talks.

For 30 years this country is in a closed circle., and generations went by in which every new spark of hope was extinguished. Our generation dreamt of an open Europe, to go to Rome, Paris, London, but all we got are new walls, Mickoski added, referring to the loss of EU perspective even after Zaev’s imspoed name change.