Newly elected Prime Minister Dimitar Kovacevski also announced that he has no intention of raising the position of ethnic Macedonians in Bulgaria during his meeting with the new Bulgarian Prime Minister Kiril Petkov planned for tomorrow. Bulgaria is pushing hard to demand concessions such as adding the Bulgarian minority to the Macedonian Constitution. But, at the same time, he strongly denied that the Macedonian minority in Bulgaria even exists, a statement more typical of nationalist Bulgarian politicians.

The issue will put a cloud over the meeting, which will be the first state visit in Kovacevski’s term. His Deputy Prime Minister for European Affairs Bojan Maricic said that Macedonia won’t raise the issue of the Macedonian minority as it doesn’t want to interfere in Bulgarian internal matters, which prompted questions aimed at Kovacevski about the principle of reciprocity.

Regarding minority rights, we respect all charters and all organizations that regulate the issue at the international level, including in the UN. We are also a country that has said that it will not interfere in the internal affairs of our neighbors, Kovacevski said, confirming that Maricic’s statement was no accident.

This will lead to a situation where Bulgaria, which generally does not allow minority rights and ethnic minority political parties, and prevents Macedonian organizations from even being registered or acting freely, will demand that Macedonia, which has a far more liberal minority policy, makes additional concessions.