In North Macedonia it is still fashionable to hate Bulgaria

Get ready for a further deterioration in Bulgaria’s relations with North Macedonia. This may be the main conclusion to be drawn from the presidential elections held in our southwestern neighbor.

The first round of voting ended with a convincing victory for the candidate of the nationalist opposition VMRO-DPMNE Gordana Silyanovska-Davkova, who leads by a double margin over the incumbent President Stevo Pendarovski.

Pendarovski could by no means be called a friend of Bulgaria. Just a few weeks ago, we heard him talking about Bulgaria’s harassment of the Macedonian minority in our country, which experienced “torture and calvary”.

His statements and actions have provoked sharp reactions from our foreign ministry more than once.

And yet, compared to Siljanovska-Davkova and the VMRO-DPMNE standing behind her, he is like a light breeze before the hurricane of aggressive anti-Bulgarian rhetoric.

The university professor, who is very likely to be the next president of North Macedonia, regularly talks about “Bulgarian dictation”, denies the Good Neighbor Treaty and points to it as almost the root of all evil for her country. It is also categorically against the inclusion of Bulgarians in the constitution as a founding nation.

VMRO-DPMNE are even more extreme, with their leader Hristijan Mickovski proving to be someone who takes advantage of every convenient attempt to blame Bulgaria for everything bad that happens in North Macedonia.

He is largely the engine that does not allow the tension between the two countries to die down, thereby hindering his own country’s integration into the European Union.

Here, however, the issue is not only partisan.

The reason why the ruling social democrats from the SDSM have fallen so much is largely the citizens’ dissatisfaction with the country’s delayed European path.

Bulgaria currently poses the main obstacle to the official negotiations for the country’s membership in the European Union. The reason is the demands of our country, Skopje, to guarantee that it will not exhibit anti-Bulgarian rhetoric and will not harass citizens who have Bulgarian self-awareness.

These things are defined in the so-called “French proposal”, which was forged during the French presidency of the Council of the EU almost two years ago. Since then, not a millimeter of progress has been made.

Instead, there is talk in Skopje of a Bulgarian diktat, of bad Bulgaria twisting the arms of North Macedonia and forcing it to humiliate itself. Similar theses are launched by parties such as VMRO-DPMNE and its leader Mickovski, but are accepted with open arms by a large part of society.

Gordana Siljanovska-Davkova’s convincing performance in the first round of the country’s presidential elections speaks unequivocally about this. And the second round will not be the last vote of the year, which will be held in our southwestern neighbor.

Photo: BGNES

Graffiti on the wall of the quay of the Vardar River: “Bulgarians in the Constitution is treason”.

We already see how both the ruling party and the opposition are practicing on our backs in their campaigns for the upcoming parliamentary elections.

Until recently, the SDSM prime minister, Dimitar Kovachevski, recently released a commercial clip in which Bulgarian football defenders prevent the Macedonian striker from scoring a goal.

“The future of Macedonia is not a game. Every challenge we overcome brings us closer to the goal. Only the SDSM has a clear vision and the power to take Macedonia to the European Union. Together we will win. There is no giving up on the future!” Kovacevski says in the video, while disappointed Bulgarian, Greek and French “football players” stand in the background.

You can see the full ad here:

After Pendarovski’s poor result, the SDSM leader has now come out and admitted that his party has disappointed Macedonians. So we can hardly expect him to talk about friendship with Bulgaria soon.

The successes and popularity of VMRO-DPMNE push the public debate to a much sharper, offensive and conflicting niche towards Bulgaria, and this is unlikely to change soon.

Such behavior will only further distance Skopje from Europe and push the country in a much more dangerous and harmful direction for the entire region.

And unfortunately, at least for now, it seems that bilateral relations will only get worse.