The prime minister Kiril Petkov called on us to overcome history and Vice President Iliana Iotova told him to take measures against his advisers
Kiril Petkov was greeted with insulting chants as he disembarked from the helicopter that brought him to North Macedonia, reports BGNES.
The prime minister, Vice President Iliana Iotova, Foreign Minister Teodora Genchovska and MPs from the ruling and opposition parties came to Bitola, North Macedonia, for the official opening of the Ivan Mihailov Cultural Centre Club in Bitola.
During the visit protests were organised by the "Union of Antifascists" and their followers and the far-left extremist parliamentary party Levica. Metropolitan Petar of the Macedonian Orthodox Church personally participated in the protest, BGNES reports, adding that some of the posters read: 'Macedonian minority in the EU'; 'OMO Ilinden Pirin - a test for democracy in Bulgaria'; 'Register OMO Ilinden in Bulgaria'; 'You have bloodied hands'; 'Cemeteries are full of Bulgarian friendship'; 'Gotse = Macedonia', etc.
However, the Bulgarian Prime Minister announced that "we have very good communication on both sides of the border". "My presence shows the commitment of our government, on this issue we must have unity, we cannot play inter-party, we must play national. It is important for the Bulgarian interest that the RSM is part of the EU, we cannot use this issue for domestic political purposes, we must all work together in sync," said Kiril Petkov
According to the Bulgarian Prime Minister, pressure from anyone should not be considered. "We have to think about what is the Bulgarian interest, what is the interest of the Republic of North Macedonia and whether these interests are not common. If we don't have peace and stability in the Balkans, if we can't raise the borders, if our businesses can't operate on both sides of the borders, we won't achieve anything," Kiril Petkov stressed.
He was adamant that the rights of Bulgarians in the Republic of North Macedonia must be protected. "The two governments are working hard, we have to come to a common position, in Bulgaria we have put the frameworks we have, for us it is important that the European future of the RSM is there, all communities in the RSM should feel equal rights, the issue of the Constitution is realistic, it is not something that cannot be achieved , the question is how, when, in what steps", added Kiril Petkov.
"We support the Bulgarians in the Republic of North Macedonia, our position is unchanged and we will defend it going forward in the negotiations," Vice President Iliana Iotova said. In her words, Prime Minister Kiril Petkov should take measures to ensure that the advisory team does not make a second foreign policy, as this would be dangerous and worrying.
"Because we will make light of our European partners and no one will take Bulgaria seriously. This is the worst consensus we have in the country regarding the membership of the RSM. There are two paths - the European procedures will start, Bulgaria has to find serious instruments to ask the European Commission for, so that in the whole process Bulgaria has enough guarantees that our conditions will be taken into account," Iliana Iotova further commented.
"My goal is to give Bulgarians confidence in the PCM and to do everything possible to have them written into the Constitution of this country. The Prime Minister and I have the same position. He must align his position with his foreign policy team." This is what Bulgarian Foreign Minister Teodora Genchovska told mcu. "The foreign ministry is pursuing Bulgaria's official policy on SSR, in accordance with the framework position with the support of the National Assembly. It cannot do without external pressure, I hope for understanding and support from our allies. We expect our colleagues from the Republic of North Macedonia to fulfil their commitments on the implementation of the Treaty. We expect concrete results," the Bulgarian Foreign Minister added.
Bulgarian Prime Minister Kiril Petkov surprised the reporter from the Macedonian portal "Tribuna.mk" with his answer when the journalist asked him "how it is possible to have an agreement between the RS Macedonia and Bulgaria, since a participant in the government calls Bulgaria a genocidal state", BGNES reports.
Two weeks ago the leader of the Democratic Union Pavle Trayanov and a member of the ruling coalition of Prime Minister Dimitar Kovacevski called Bulgaria a genocidal state. According to him, Bulgaria is committing genocide to date against the RSM.
In his response to Macedonian journalist Kiril Petkov said verbatim: "What we see is that there are extremist positions politically on both sides of the border. We have to ignore the extremists and follow the right path according to the principles that we all promised to our voters. So I personally would not respond to extremist positions."