President Stevo Pendarovski said late Friday that the opening event of “Vanco Mihajlov” club in Bitola is controversial for two reasons – the name of the club and the composition of the Bulgarian delegation that came to Bitola.

In my opinion, two moments are controversial. First, the name, I must say that our institutions should not have registered an institution in the field of culture with such a name. The second moment, in my opinion, is the composition of the delegation that came from Bulgaria… if there is one Karakachanov or one Zaharieva in the team, who are the architects of this dispute, of this blockade from Bulgaria…, I think Petkov’s good intention, with the composition of the delegation and entering a club named after a proven fascist collaborator, is quite undermined or minimized, says Pendarovski.

Speaking about the demands for inclusion of the Bulgarians in the Macedonian Constitution, Pendarovski said that this issue can be discussed, but that there are no guarantees that any next government in Sofia will have other demands towards us.

No one can guarantee how long the current political set in Bulgaria will remain in power and what next demands from us could be the next one. Few will confirm that Petkov’s government can last 7-8 years, until our formal entry into the EU. From whom should we ask for such guarantees. This is politics. The next government will say – what the previous government signed, they were traitors to our cause, we are not interested. And? We cannot open the Constitution as needed, every Monday, says Pendarovski.

According to him, there has been a turnaround in Sofia’s demands regarding our EU integration. Bulgaria, in order to give the green light to the negotiating framework, previously insisted on a complete takeover of Bulgarian historiography in Macedonian textbooks and agreement that the Macedonian language was a dialect of Bulgarian until the end of World War II.