No matter how long we are blocked and vetoed, we remain Macedonians who speak the Macedonian language, said VMRO-DPMNE Vice President Aleksandar Nikoloski during his remarks in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, where he discussed the report on the April elections in Bulgaria. Bulgaria is blocking Macedonia from opening its EU accession talks, as it demands that Macedonia rewrites its history and redefines its national identity.

One thing that is as well mentioned is the hate speech. We are witnessing that since the protests started in Bulgaria, the hate speech rose. The second thing are the attacks against my country, against Macedonia and Macedonians. Bulgaria is blocking the opening of accession talks with Macedonia in the past two years for political reasons and, if you will, for electoral reasons, They continue to do that, violating basic human rights of Macedonians such as self-identification, nomination of our language and our history, and of our heritage, and they are a step away from doing that tomorrow at the General Council of the European Union and block our accession talks. I have only one thing to say to them. We know who we are, we are Macedonians. We know what language we speak – we speak Macedonian. We know our heritage and our history and no matter what kind of decision they make tomorrow, all of Europe knows who we are and what we are. They should feel the shame of the consequences they are making, Nikoloski said.

Nikoloski also named the other objections in the report, that parties engaged in vote buying, intimidation of voters from the socially disadvantaged categories and that the protests showed public distrust in the Government, before focusing on the issue of Bulgaria’s abuse of its veto powers to pursue a nationalist policy toward Macedonia.