Skopje, 11 April 2023 (MIA) - President Stevo Pendarovski said late Tuesday that he has no contact with the Bulgarian President Rumen Radev and that the last time he met him was last year at the Mini Summit on Energy in Sofia.

President Pendarovski told Sitel TV that in the past two years he did not have a single constructive conversation with Radev, stressing that, in his opinion, there is no climate of good neighborliness.

“For the past two years, Bulgaria has had a series of provocations towards us and has come up with arguments for our blockade of the EU, which has never existed in the history of the EU. No country has blocked another country by saying "You are not who you think you are." To talk about identity politics and say that I am not Macedonian and that only if I change all the textbooks will I be able to progress towards Europe... We can fake meetings, but in the last two years I have practically not had a single constructive conversation with Radev,” Pendarovski said.

Regarding his statements that caused a reaction in Sofia, Pendarovski said that the reaction of the citizens in this country is more important to him than the reaction from Sofia.

The opening of the Bulgarian clubs in the country, according to Pendarovski, is one of the possible reasons for the increase of dissatisfaction among the citizens with the French proposal.

“There was a period when the disapproval decreased. Unfortunately, it started to increase again. I think, but it requires more time and deeper analyses, but I think and am convinced that the organized intention of Bulgaria to provoke by opening of the so-called clubs of the Bulgarians in Macedonia contributed to that increasing the objection again,” Pendarovski said.