Members of the Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee from SDSM and DUI rejected the proposal that the Committee debates the crisis with Bulgaria. The vote was 5-4, with SDSM and DUI on one side and the combined opposition parties on the other.

This comes after Foreign Minister Bujar Osmani and Deputy Prime Minister Nikola Dimitrov also refused to testify before the Committee. This prompted Committee chairman Antonio Milososki to bring a cardboard cutout of Dimitrov to the hearing.

Macedonia is facing a veto on its EU accession talks as Bulgaria demands a long list of concessions on issues of history and national identity. Talks are on-going between Bulgaria and the Zaev regime, but the opposition in Macedonia is kept on the sideline.