Skopje, 10 July 2025 (MIA) – ZNAM Movement leader Maksim Dimitrievski sharply criticized the European Union and its member countries for putting the country under pressure in the progress report adopted in the European Parliament. The Macedonian identity is non-negotiable, he told a press conference Thursday.

"I believe that yesterday -- the way the day turned out to be, hard, unfair, with yet another report that looks like pressure -- will be another day that unites us. Not around politics but around Macedonia," Dimitrievski said.

"We want Macedonia in the EU. This is what the ZNAM Movement is committed to. But we do not want a Macedonia without Macedonians. We do not want membership we need to pay for with denial of our own existence," he said.

Dimitrievski was commenting on the country report by the EP's rapporteur on North Macedonia MEP Thomas Waitz, which the EP adopted Wednesday while also adopting an amendment that deleted the wording "Macedonian language and identity" from the report.

The ZNAM leader accused Bulgaria of pursuing politics of cultural aggression and falsification of history. He also accused the EU of being tolerant of revanchism.

"If the EU allows one of its member states, like Bulgaria, to turn the negotiations into a means of historical revanchism, then it allows for a union in which the weak are victimized and the strong can alter their neighbor's identity," he said.

"Not only do they want us to agree with them, they also insist on us denouncing ourselves," he added.

He also criticized the previous Macedonian government, and especially Zoran Zaev for signing the Prespa Agreement, Dimitar Kovachevski for signing various agreements without consulting the people as well as Stevo Pendarovski for his statements.

"That was not a people's government. It was a government of treason," Dimitrievski said, accusing former top officials of "doing business, getting golden visas and counting their profits in the shade."

He said ZNAM was fighting not against Europe but for a Europe of equal nations. "Not against integration but against assimilation," he said.

"We will build a state in which no one will be embarrassed to say they are Macedonian," Dimitrievski said.

He also called for national unity, urging all political parties to form a platform and sign a declaration together "regardless of past mistakes." mr/