Bulgaria has a Council of national minorities, but it does not include ethnic Macedonians, said President Gordana Siljanovska – Davkova, during a TV interview. Bulgaria demands that Macedonia changes its Constitution to include the ethnic Bulgarians in the Preamble, but refuses to take any reciprocal steps to improve the lot of ethnic Macedonians in Bulgaria.

Building awareness of the existence of minorities is a process. If you don’t respect the sentences of the Court in Strasbourg, which includes a Bulgarian representative, it means that you are not building such awareness. The Bulgarian Constitution does not allow forming of parties on ethnic or religious grounds, Siljanovska said, adding to the list of failures of Bulgaria to respect its own minorities. Bulgaria has far lower ethnic minority standards than Macedonia, where numerous changes to the Constitution after the 2001 civil war redefined the country as more a union of communities than a nation state like Bulgaria.

Siljanovska was recently involved in a diplomatic dispute with Bulgaria, when President Rumen Radev snubbed her attempt for cultural diplomacy and did not display the Macedonian flag during Siljanovska’s visit.