Skopje, 19 September 2024 (MIA) - Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Transport Aleksandar Nikoloski responded Thursday to the criticism of Bulgarian politicians regarding his statement on the absence of the Macedonian flag at the meeting between President Gordana Siljanovska-Davkova and Bulgarian President Rumen Radev in Sofia.

“I would like to respond to the latest hysteria that is being created by some unsuccessful Bulgarian politicians. Namely, they needlessly draw Macedonia into the pre-election rhetoric in Bulgaria, but I think Macedonia is one of the least likely answers for the seventh unsuccessful elections facing Bulgaria. The crisis in Bulgarian society has been created precisely by these politicians who, instead of providing an answer to their public over the high level of corruption and crime in Bulgaria, or the bad economy that makes people move out of the country, they focus on Macedonia,” Nikoloski stressed.

Nikoloski said their focus on the country shows they don’t want good neighborly relations, nor for the country to become an EU member state or progress towards the EU.

“They want to block Macedonia and use Macedonia as their election campaign topic. Of course, we won’t allow that, and I won’t allow anyone to find excuses in my statements or anything else happening in Macedonia. The very fact that statements are being taken out of context and misunderstood in Bulgaria shows that the Macedonian and Bulgarian language are different,” Nikoloski said.

The Deputy PM said he stands behind his statement that it is “uncultured, undignified and uncivilized for a country’s president to visit you and for you not to place the flag of the country they represent”. 

“There is no justification for Rumen Radev not having the Macedonian flag during Gordana Siljanovska-Davkova's visit as President of Macedonia. Did he want to send a message that they in fact don’t even recognize Macedonia, which is perhaps their longstanding dream? We are clear about who we are, we are a separate nation, the Macedonian nation, a separate people, the Macedonian people. We speak in our own Macedonian language, different from all other languages, we have our own history, our own culture. We know who we are, and we have nothing to prove to anyone. And those who want to interpret history differently are politicians from the 19th century and not from the 21st,” NIkoloski stressed.

Nikoloski also responded to GERB leader and former Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borissov, who called for his resignation. 

“Politicians who are accused of crime and corruption are asking me to resign, politicians who we saw sleeping next to gold bars and hundreds of thousands of euros. Are these the kind of politicians that are asking me to resign? I am sorry gentlemen, but you are not dignified to ask me to resign. I regret that the good relations between these two, close people – the Macedonian and Bulgarian people – are being destroyed by corrupt politicians who can’t do anything for their own country apart from injecting anger and hatred,” Nikoloski said.

Nikoloski drew the ire of the Bulgarian public when in a TV interview on Tuesday, commenting on the absence of the Macedonian flag in the photograph of the meeting between Siljanovska-Davkova and Radev, said “evidently the host isn’t civilized, nor has respect, which is why situations like this occur; only our domestic servants are more miserable than them”.

The office of Bulgarian President Rumen Radev and Bulgaria's Ministry of Foreign Affairs then issued statements in response to, what they described as "uncalled-for provocations" and "insulting qualifications" toward Bulgaria and the Bulgarian people by officials from the Republic of North Macedonia. Bulgarian politicians also responded to Nikoloski’s statement. 

Photo: MIA Archive