Tito Petkovski, leader of the NSDP party which is part of the SDSM – DUI led coalition, declared Bulgaria “the only overt enemy of Macedonia and the Macedonians”.

In a Facebook comment, Petkovski also said that the nationalist demands from Bulgaria portray its leaders Rumen Radev and Slavi Trifonov as “men without basic moral scruples”. Bulgaria is blocking Macedonia from opening its EU accession talks, and demands major concessions in the area of national identity and history before it will lift the veto.

Petkovski, a Yugoslav army officer, was part of a false flag operation in the early days of Macedonian independence, when he organized the printing of leaflets ostensibly supportive of the VMRO-DPMNE party in Bulgarian. The aim of the operation was to portray Bulgaria as an enemy of Macedonia and to allege that VMRO-DPMNE is close to Bulgaria and works to expand Bulgarian interests.