If Bulgaria succeeds to make its demands part of Macedonia’s EU accession process, that will be the start of a hellish period where we will constantly be under pressure, said VMRO-DPMNE Vice President Aleksandar Nikoloski. Earlier this year, Bulgarian Prime Minister Kiril Petkov indicated that his counterpart in Skopje Dimitar Kovacevski has accepted that at least one of the major Bulgarian demands – that of naming the Bulgarian minority in the Macedonian Constitution – is made part of the EU accession process.

If this happens, the endgame will be that we either accept that we were Bulgarians until 1945 and that we speak a dialect of the Bulgarian language, or we will not advance to the EU. We will not accept that, said Nikoloski on behalf of VMRO-DPMNE.

The SDSM – DUI coalition does not have the votes in Parliament to amend the Constitution and as VMRO refuses to give them the votes, Kovacevski and Petkov have apparently agreed to put the issue before the EU – and any future Government would be bound to accept the Bulgarian demands or be blocked by the EU.

Zaev’s pawns are prepared to sign treaties that directly undermine the uniqueness of the Macedonian nation and language. That is outside the realm o reality. We are a nation that is different from all other Balkan nations and we speak a unique language. The Macedonian state has a political and historic continuity, starting with the 19th century and the period of national awakening, through the uprisings of Kresna and Razlovci, crowned by the Ilinden Uprising and continued the struggle through the Balkan wars and the First World War up to ASNOM and NOB, and the 1991 independence referendum, Nikoloski said.