Regarding the dispute with Bulgaria, opposition leader Hristijan Mickoski asked that the first step forward needs to be to remove all persons who have ulterior motives from the process. In this regard, Mickoski pointed to the growing rumors that the Zaev regime is preparing to make major business concessions to Bulgaria, with take-over of major Macedonian publicly owned companies, in an attempt to get Bulgaria to end its veto of the Macedonian EU accession talks.

As long as the negotiators have all sorts of concessions, there will be no progress. This includes all sorts of business issues such as the railways, the telecom operators, various banks, which are being negotiated over. This contributes to the rise of anger in the people, Mickoski said.

Zaev announced an unprecedented push to sell off publicly owned companies at the same time that the talks with Bulgaria hit a brick wall, and Bulgarian politicians are openly blaming Macedonia of “blocking potential Bulgarian investments” and list this as one of the reasons for their veto.