Bulgarian Foreign Minister Ekaterian Zaharieva shot back at Prime Minister Zoran Zaev, after Zaev condemned the Bulgarian veto as an “unprincipled move” in an online conference with the Atlantic Council, and said that Bulgaria is acting contrary to international law.

Is it principled to educate entire generations to hate the neighboring country and its people? The problem is that he nurtures hatred toward the Bulgarians and does not implement the 2017 treaty. We can’t allow these forms of discrimination to continue in the 21st century, Zaharieva said.

Bulgaria considers Macedonian history lessons about the Bulgarian World War Two occupation as hate speech, as well as the WW2 memorial plaques that mention the “Bulgarian fascist occupiers”.

Zaharieva also said that Zaev should not expect any change in Bulgaria’s policy after the March elections there. “We have a unanimous decision in the Bulgarian Parliament”, Zaharieva said, talking about a resolution in which Macedonia is required to make concessions on fundamental issues of national identity and history.