The office of President Stevo Pendarovski issued a statement in which he distances himself from the positions of his foreign policy adviser Denko Maleski – who said that Macedonian history was falsified and needs to be aligned with the Bulgarian historic narrative. But Pendarovski did not announce he will remove Maleski from his position and said that his advisers are allowed to think freely.

Macedonia’s first Foreign Minister Denko Maleski says the country should review its history in line with the Bulgarian historical narrative

The latest statements and positions of professor Maleski do not correspond to the thinking and the positions of President Pendarovski on the relations of Macedonia and Bulgaria. But that fact doesn’t mean that President Pendarovski can’t cooperate with professor Maleski. We are long past the time when advisers of the President had to just repeat the positions of their superior, the office said in its press release.

Pendarovski himself made a major concession to Bulgaria when he described the legendary VMRO leader Goce Delcev, over whose legacy the two countries are now locked in a bitter dispute, as a self-declared Bulgarian who fought for Macedonia. Bulgaria is now naturally using Pendarovski’s position as its starting point, even though Pendarovski tried to take it back and said that Delcev may have been pressured to declare himself as a Bulgarian.