Interim Prime Minister Oliver Spasovski sought to bolster the Government’s credentials in protecting the Macedonian national identity, issuing a statement on the day of the Macedonian language. The country is under pressure from Bulgaria to stop using the name Macedonian language in front of EU institutions and have it replaced with the “official language of the Republic of North Macedonia” – given that Bulgaria insists that Macedonians speak a mere western dialect of the Bulgarian language.

Today we mark this important day in a reality that is contemporary but undeniable – that we speak on the Macedonian language with our own alphabet. The Macedonian language went through all the stages of its founding, spread and recognition. It is up to us to protect it and advance it, bearing in mind the work of Misirkov and Koneski, Spasovski said, citing the proponents of the creation of an independent Macedonia and the codification of a Macedonian language.

May 5 is the day when, in 1945, the Macedonian Government adopted a decree declaring the codified Cyrillic alphabet as the official alphabet of the Macedonian language. Spasovski added that the Macedonian language is the “shield of our identity and the future of our homeland”. Spasovski’s mentor, SDSM party leader Zoran Zaev, yesterday said that he “would be lying if he said that Macedonia doesn’t have to meet all the obligations” from the treaty he signed with Bulgaria. The treaty was signed in the “official languages according to the constitutions” of both countries, to avoid having Bulgaria accept that it signed a treaty written in Macedonian. The Bulgarian Government is determined to prevent the establishment of the Macedonian language as an official EU language, in the course of Macedonia’s EU accession talks.