Following his meeting with Zoran Zaev, that was mediated by Angela Merkel and Emmanuel Macron, Bulgarian President Rumen Radev reiterated his hardline position that Bulgaria will continue to block Macedonia from openings its EU accession talks. Radev said that Macedonia must do away with its “Macedonianness” if it wants the green light from Bulgaria – this would mean thorough rewriting of Macedonian history and redefining of Macedonian national identity to subvert it to the Bulgarian identity.

The essence of the problem is the systemic de-Bulgarization and the years of destruction of the Bulgarian cultural and historic heritage in that country, Radev declared after the meeting, announcing that the Bulgarian “no” remains in place”.

With Bulgaria in pre-election campaign mode, Zaev’s meeting with Radev likely made things worse, despite the involvement of the powerful mediators. Zaev and Radev held two mediated meetings in Slovenia, with Merkel and Macron and another with Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Jansa and European Enlargement Commissioner Oliver Varhelyi.

Radev cited the recent removal of a monument in Bulgarian language at the site of a minor battle in Macedonia, that was erected by Bulgarian officials during the First World War, as a provocation from Zaev’s part. He also named the issuing of about 120,000 Bulgarian dual citizenships to Macedonian citizens, which generally require that the applicant declares that his family was of Bulgarian origin. A vast majority of these applicants use the Bulgarian passport for easier access to the EU labour market, and leave the Balkans altogether, but Bulgaria now wants the census in Macedonia to reflect this number. The unwillingness of Macedonians who hold dual citizenships to declare their Bulgarian origin in the census is taken as proof that these people are being threatened by the Macedonian authorities.