Bulgarian nationalist member of Parliament Kostadin Kostadinov, who leads the recently formed Vazrazhdane party, declared Macedonia to be a “Bulgarian land”.

Kostadinov, whose party has a position that Macedonia needs to be integrated into Bulgaria, made the statement in response to the opening of a Macedonian cultural center in Blagoevgrad. “On Sunday we witnessed a provocation from a non-existant minority in Bulgaria, that was directly or indirectly organized by our neighboring country. We warned that we are opening Pandora’s box four months ago, when we lifted our veto. Now the Macedonian language can become an official language of the EU. All this proved that our concern were founded. We will speak about the Bulgarian history in both Brussels and Strasbourg. One thing is clear – Macedonia is Bulgarian, Kostadinov said.

It’s expected that the Macedonian Foreign Ministry will issue a reaction to the Bulgarian authorities about these comments.