VMRO-DPMNE President Hristijan Mickoski said that under the future VMRO led Government relations with Bulgaria will be based on mutual respect, tolerance, and built up through work in the areas of mutual interest.

We will not try to drag them into unprincipled relations, like Zaev does, or use frauds and tricks. They will have a sincere friend and neighbor, ready to work for a bright new future in the region, but on the basis of reciprocity, Mickoski said in an interview with the Serbian Politika daily.

Bulgaria got Zaev to sign the 2017 Friendship Treaty, which it now uses to demand major concessions from him on issues of national identity and history. This has deteriorated relations between the two countries and led to the Bulgarian veto against Macedonia’s EU accession talks.