As Bulgarian President Rumen Radev is convening a meeting of its national security council to discuss the dispute with Macedonia, both countries are preparing for the visit by the newly elected Bulgarian Prime Minister Kiril Petkov to Macedonia on January 18th.

Petkov will be accompanied by Foreign Minister Teodora Gencovska and Transportation Minister Nikolaj Sabev. His main meeting is expected to be with new SDSM party leader Dimitar Kovacevski, who hopes to be voted in as Prime Minister by the SDSM – DUI coalition by then. Petkov said that he wants to expand the negotiations beyond history, to several other areas, such as the economy and infrastructure. But, after his initial optimistic announcements that the dispute will be resolved in six months, Petkov quickly backtracked and made stronger, more hardline statements.

Asked about the planned visit, opposition leader Hristijan Mickoski said that President Radev will maintain pressure on Petkov not to overpromise and not to overly moderate the Bulgarian position.

President Radev confirmed to us that the essence of the problem is the resolution of the Bulgarian Parliament, and he lambasted the new Petkov Government not to give in. That is a strong message, that as long as the resolution is in force, we will be subjected to blackmail, to hegemonic demands stuck centuries in the past, instead of looking toward the future, Mickoski said. The resolution, that was unanimously adopted by the Bulgarian Parliament, calls on Macedonia to declare that the Macedonian nation and language have a Bulgarian origin.