Skopje, 19 November 2021 (MIA) – We should not deal with statements coming from people who still have no political legitimacy until a government and a parliament are constituted in Bulgaria, said President Stevo Pendarovski on Friday. “These are statements coming from a caretaker foreign minister of presidential hopefuls or those who should form the next government but is still not a done deal. These are statements coming from people who either don’t have full political legitimacy or candidates who are set to become government members or form institutions in Sofia,” said President Pendarovski when asked about the differing positions of incumbent Bulgarian President Rumen Radev, who is running for a second term, and the future possible PM-designate Kiril Petkov. Pendarovski said he is a cautious realist, irrespective of the government formation in Sofia. “We have been burned on so many occasions while waiting for Sofia to lift the unreasonable blockade so I would wait to see who we will talk to tomorrow, the day after tomorrow or later, not only on a presidential level, but also at the level of Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which has conducted the talks until now,” Pendarovski told a joint press conference with visiting Polish counterpart Andrzej Duda. Asked about Radev’s statement on the systemic de-Bulgarization in North Macedonia, Pendarovski said such claims are not based on reality, and the recently completed Census is a fact that confirms this. “We have just completed the Census, there is not a single verbal or written document or report filed to the Anti-Discrimination Commission or other competent authorities – prosecutor’s office, police – of a person who declared himself/herself as Bulgarian but was prevented to do this by the census takers. Therefore, if we have managed to count over 1,8 million people while there are claims of over 100,000 Macedonian nationals holding Bulgarian citizenship, but none of them complained of being denied the right to express their national feeling, then I ask where is the systemic de-Bulgarization here? I suppose these statements go way back in the past, but I have always insisted on having a clear set of criteria and principles when joining the EU, which was established in 1957. We negotiate and become members without talking about the 10th or the 15th century, because this should be left to the historians. Let me repeat, at this time, before and after the Census, there has been no reported case of our citizen declaring himself as an ethnic Bulgarian living in the Republic of North Macedonia, who sought for protection from our authorities after allegedly being denied this,” underlined President Pendarovski.