Defense Minister Radmila Sekerinska today spoke out in praise of the anti-fascist past of Macedonia, but insisted that she can’t allow it to stand in the way of future European integration. Macedonia is faced with demands from Bulgaria to revide its history, especially the references to the partisan fight against Bulgarian forces during the large portion of World War Two when Bulgaria sided with the Axis.

Our anti-fascist past puts us on the right side of history, but the challenges of today can’t be resolved if we are with both our feet in the past. This is also what the European countries did only years after the bloodiest conflict in history, Sekerinska said, continuing her support for Prime Minister Zoran Zaev, who in a shocking interview for a Bulgarian news outlet gave up on all long held positions with regard to Bulgaria and even declared the Bulgarian armies as liberators in Macedonia in the last stage of the war, while mere administrators for most of the war. While much of the “urban wing” of the SDSM party, which Sekerinska belongs to, is up in arms against Zaev, she has remained stalwart in her support for the party leader.