Pavle Trajanov, leader of the small DS party which is allied with SDSM, criticized Zoran Zaev’s claim that Macedonia and Bulgaria have a shared history. The former top police official under Communism and Interior Minister during his alliance with VMRO-DPMNE contributed to the fall of the Gruevski Government during the Colored Revolution and has since switched sides and allied with Zaev.

We need to tell the Bulgarian Government very clearly that we don’t have a shared history, that the Macedonian nation has its own, authentic history and has no Bulgarian roots. We are a sovereign and independent, pro-European and modern country and we will not accept any blackmail and conditioning, Trajanov said.

His remarks were directly aimed at former Prime Minister Vlado Buckovski, who is in Sofia to negotiate on behalf of Zaev, after Bulgaria officially vetoed the opening of EU accession talks with Macedonia. Trajanov was critical along similar lines as Zaev made these comments in his BGNES interview. Over the past two days Zaev is furiously backpeddaling and giving a nationalist boost to his public comments, in stark contrast to what he said in the BGNES interview – even claiming that it was meant for the Bulgarian public. But Buckovski still stands in the positions Zaev outlined for BGNES.

Trajanov is the lone DS member of Parliament, but as seen during the Colored Revolution when he turned his back on VMRO-DPMNE, and especially now with wafer thin SDSM majority, he could again destabilize the Government. But at the moment, with Zaev making a U-turn on Bulgaria, it’s unclear whether Trajanov wants to advance his criticism of Zaev much further. Zaev’s Government is expected to face a vote of no confidence initiated by the opposition VMRO-DPMNE party in the coming weeks.