VMRO-DPMNE boycotted the annual address by President Stevo Pendarovski in the Parliament today, because of his positions toward Macedonian history and national identity. When Pendarovski took the podium, the opposition members of Parliament turned their backs on him and revealed signs denouncing Pendarovski for his “blind adherence to Zoran Zaev”, his statement that Goce Delcev was a Bulgarian and numerous other violations.

“Our identity is not for sale”. “Not my President”, were some of signs carried by the VMRO members of Parliament who then walked out of the Parliament.

Stevo Pendarovski showed that he does not see himself as President of all citizens, but as the enforcement tool of a political structure. Pendarovski turned his back on the citizens, and now the citizens turn their backs on him, said VMRO-DPMNE Vice President Aleksandar Nikoloski.

Nikoloski said that Pendarovski eroded Macedonian national identity red lines when he casually said that legendary VMRO leader Goce Delcev was a Bulgarian. Even though Pendarovski quickly qualified his comment, this opened the door for Bulgaria to double its pressure on Macedonia.

As President of the country, Pendarovski could not bring himself to utter a word in opposition to Zoran Zaev when Zaev declared the Bulgarian army in World War Two as liberators, when he declared this period a Bulgarian “administration” and when he said that the Macedonian and the Bulgarian language are one and the same. Pendarovski does not consult with the opposition on matters of strategic importance. He gave Zaev the mandate to form a Government even though he himself acknowledged that Zaev doesn’t have the necessary 61 votes. Pendarovski was himself elected illegitimately. This was revealed by the former head of Islamic Community who said that votes for Pendarovski were bought with the promise of land on the Skopje Kale fortress. He has no legitimacy to claim that he is President of the Republic of Macedonia, Nikoloski said.

In his remarks, Pendarovski made a veiled rebuke of Zoran Zaev, saying that “I deeply believe that no politician has the right to negotiate on our identity, now or in the future, and. Our red lines are set long ago – in the state forming acts of the first ASNOM assembly in 1944 and the declaration of the Macedonian language as the official language of the Macedonian state”. Zaev is currently engaged in negotiations with Bulgaria on these very issues, but Pendarovski’s statement does not directly negate what Zaev is negotiating, since, Bulgaria is happy to declare that the Macedonian nationhood and statehood begins at the end of the Second World War.