A number of VMRO-DPMNE officials who were called out by Bulgarian nationalist politician Krasimir Karakacanov for allegedly having dual citizenship, denied the claim. Karakacanov made the allegation in apparent coordination with his protege in Macedonia Zoran Zaev, as Zaev faced two major corruption scandals yesterday.

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SDSM supporters in the press jumped on the report, eager to distract the public from the corruption scandals which touched on the burning issue of the lack of vaccines. SDSM spokesman Kostadin Kostadinov took Karakacanov’s allegation at face value, even after Karakacanov made sure that the allegation is made in a veiled and indirect fashion, which only prompted more indignation in Macedonia.

I do not have another citizenship other than the Macedonian. But the Zaev family has companies registered in Bulgaria, responded VMRO-DPMNE Vice President Aleksandar Nikoloski, sharing documents (pictured) showing how Zaev’s family members have registered a number of companies in Bulgaria. In the past, Nikoloski has alleged that Zaev is setting up this chain of companies in order to tap lucrative mining deals in Macedonia, while pretending these the companies are unrelated “foreign investors”.

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Bojan Stojanoski from VMRO-DPMNE also denied Karakacanov’s manipulation, adding that he “regrets the fact that SDSM is so anxious to spread this fake report”. Stojanoski called on Kostadinov to re-state the claim directly, without any obfuscation, so that the matter can be settled in court. Kostadinov initially made the claim directly, that VMRO officials have Bulgarian citizenship which requires declaring that you have a Bulgarian national origin, but later he altered his Facebook post to add the word “probably”.

Ever since Macedonia’s independence SDSM has tried to accuse VMRO-DPMNE of having too close ties to Bulgaria – one of the early political scandals in the country included former Parliament Speaker Tito Petkovski distributing leaflets in Bulgarian ostensibly in VMRO-DPMNE’s name. SDSM activists have also often spread photoshopped images of VMRO officials with the Bulgarian flag. The practice hasn’t died down even after SDSM did a U-turn in their policy toward Bulgaria under Zaev and began accepting Bulgarian demands to redefine the Macedonian national identity.