VMRO-DPMNE presidential candidate Gordana Siljanovska – Davkova condemned her SDSM party opponent Stevo Pendarovski for his statement that legendary VMRO leader Goce Delcev was a Bulgarian. Siljanovska discussed the divisive issue during the honoring of Delcev, at the anniversary of his death 121 years ago.

Nobody has the right to give up Goce Delcev, the Apostle of the Macedonian revolutionary struggle. We will not allow anyone to forge the Macedonian history and rewrite it without Goce, Dame, Jane, Pitu and the other greats who laid the foundations of the Macedonian state, Siljanovska said.

In a statement that continues to haunt him, made during the early stages of SDSM’s failed attempt to reach an agreement with Bulgaria, Pendarovski said that Goce Delcev himself declared a Bulgarian identity. When pressed by the outraged public, Pendarovski qualified the statement, saying that Delcev had to do so to enroll at the Bulgarian military academy.

We have no objections if others also want to honor Goce Delcev. He was a man whose work is honored by all people. But we expect that those who celebrate him accept the fact that his dream was to be buried in an independent Macedonian state, a wish that was made true with the help of the Bulgarian state, which helped bring his mortal remains to his eternal home at the St. Spas church in 1946, Siljanovska added.