Political parties in North Macedonia continued trading accusations on Friday through a series of statements linked to Bulgaria.
According to the ruling VMRO-DPMNE, former prime minister Zoran Zaev from the opposition Social Democratic Union of Macedonia (SDSM) “started by removing the term ‘Macedonian’ from all state institutions, and now his obedient follower and keeper of his seat in SDSM, Venko Filipce, is ready to fill in the blank with ‘North Macedonian'”.
VMRO-DPMNE said: “Only SDSM and Filipce have no problem when someone calls us ‘North Macedonians’, so for them this is a success and they are proud of it. Only Filipce, SDSM and their supreme leader Zaev have no problem pursuing anti-national and anti-state policies that are in the interest of the Bulgarian authorities. For them, there is nothing wrong with Bulgaria denying our existence before 1944, portraying our revolutionaries and activists as Bulgarians, and describing the Macedonian language as derived from, or a dialect of, Bulgarian. Only Filipce and SDSM are calling for constitutional amendments, which are the first step in a set of demands that Bulgaria itself, or rather its authorities, have clearly stated they will have.”
For its part, SDSM reiterated its position that the various communities in North Macedonia are also “Macedonian citizens” and that “the issue of minorities is not a Bulgarian issue, but a European one”.
“We are negotiating EU membership with the European Union, not with Bulgaria. Including minorities in the Constitution strengthens the unity and cohesion of society as a whole. This refutes the Bulgarian narrative that Macedonians do not exist. In [North] Macedonia, Bulgarians are a minority, while in Bulgaria, Macedonians are a minority. This is further confirmation of [our] national identity. We are a state of one Macedonian people and all the minorities living in it. The criminal organization VMRO[-DPMNE] is deliberately scaring the public with a ‘Bulgarian threat’ in order to block Macedonia’s European future and protect its own criminal network,” SDSM said.
/YV/