Regional media outlets responded strongly to Zoran Zaev’s interview with the Buglarian BGNES news agency, in which he accepted all Bulgarian positions on issues of history and national identity. The interview is being welcomed in the Bulgarian press although it is not getting especially prominent coverage.

But in outlets based in what was Yugoslavia, Zaev’s positions are widely mocked. Especially so his claim that it was Yugoslavia that kept Macedonia and Bulgaria apart, and that Bulgaria was not an occupier but a liberator of Macedonia during the Second World War.

Bosnian based Al Jazeera and Avaz lead with the statement that Zaev is blaming Yugoslavia for separating Macedonia from Bulgaria, prompting comments from readers that Macedonia would’ve been gobbled up if it were otherwise. “Zaev sucks up to the Bulgarians”, wrote the pro-Russian Pravda site from Serbia, while the pro-Government Informer tabloid in Serbia advised Zaev that he is “smarter when he keeps his mouth shut”.