Skopje, 29 September (MIA) – At the Bulgarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ regular briefing Thursday, Bulgarian Foreign Minister Nikolaj Milkov highlighted two events concerning North Macedonia – the football match between the national teams of the two countries and pop singer Lambe Alabakovski’s suspended sentence for setting fire to the entrance of the “Vancho Mihajlov” center in Bitola, reports MIA’s Sofia correspondent. Regarding the events at the football match, Milkov said he wants to avoid further inflaming tensions and the topic should be closed. The Bulgarian Foreign Minister said that these two events reveal a structural problem concerning the rights of Bulgarians in North Macedonia. According to him, Alabakovski’s sentence is the lightest possible sentence and added that in line with North Macedonia’s legislation, this type of crime calls for a sentence in the range of 6 months to 5 years. He added that a relatively more serious punishment was expected, however this is a decision made by the independent Macedonian court. Both of these events, according to Milkov, are acts of hate, and are not sending a positive message to the people of North Macedonia and Bulgaria. He said that attention should be paid to the language used during the match, and not the language used by politicians. This, according to him, is evidence of the attempts to erode the agreements reached thus far and demonstrates to the citizens of North Macedonia where the country stands in relation to the EU negotiations process. “The attempts to freely interpret the French proposal and the current atmosphere in North Macedonia do not favor the process. There is a long way to go,” said the Bulgarian Minister of Foreign Affairs. Milkov added that he would not like to comment on the language used by football agitators, underscoring that he still has a positive view and that these are declarations intended for internal use in North Macedonia. According to him, they do not in any way change the obligations of North Macedonia, both as part of the bilateral agreement and in the implementation of the French proposal. ad/ba/