Journalist and outspoken SDSM party supporter Zoran Ivanov, who was recently fired by the Government as head of the Oversight Board of the MIA state run news agency for ugly insults aimed at the top diplomats of Bulgaria and Greece, is at it again. After Bulgarian Foreign Minister Ekaterina Zaharieva recently protested that Macedonia is still in thrall to Serbia, Ivanov responded by calling her “miserable”.

Zaharieva, and other Bulgarian politicians, reacted after Zoran Zaev announced that he is going to reintroduce Serbian language studies in elementary schools.

Ekaterina, you miserable diplomat, Macedonian language is taught in Serbian schools where Macedonians live. Just you wait, it will be taught over there too, Ivanov said – meaning Bulgaria.

Bulgaria and Serbia have tried to expand their influence over Macedonia since their foundings, and Bulgaria had high hopes in Zaev, but his failure to deliver, and his current apparent turn to the other side, disappointed many in Bulgaria.

Ivanov was fired from the mostly ceremonial position in the agency he helped found after he said that Zaharieva and former Greek Foreign Minister Dora Bakoyannis are frigid, other than when it comes to pressuring Macedonia.