Macedonia’s President maintains firm position that language and identity are not and cannot be part of the negotiating framework with Bulgaria.

In all his statements and interviews, President Stevo Pendarovski maintains a single and consistent position, the Macedonian identity, language and culture are not and can not be put on the negotiating table with Bulgaria or be part of the negotiating framework. Membership in any international organization is not worth it if we are asked to be deprived of our identity, said Pendarovski’s Office answering Pressing TV’s question how he would act and what is his opinion if there is an agreement with Bulgaria on the table as presented by the leader of the opposition VMRO-DPMNE, Hristijan Mickoski. 

At Monday’s press briefing, Mickoski confirmed that he had recently met with President Pendarovski, where he was briefed on the course and talks with Bulgarian President Rumen Radev at the joint celebration of the saint brothers Cyril and Methodius in Rome.

The leader of the largest opposition party announced Monday that the party will be staging protests in Skopje and ten other cities in Macedonia until the Government publicly reveals what exactly the Portuguese proposal for settling the differences with Bulgaria contains.

According to Mickoski, the next two weeks are critical, because based on the information the have have from diplomatic sources, Prime Minister Zoran Zaev and Special Envoy Vlado Buckovski are secretly negotiating with Bulgaria, accepting part of the Declaration adopted by the Bulgarian National Assembly. This, in practice, would mean assimilation and Bulgarianization of the Macedonians and a long-term freezing of the negotiation process, because Bulgaria’s demands will become part of the negotiating framework, on the one hand, and the dispute will no longer be bilateral, it will grow into a dispute between Macedonia and the European Union.