Another escalation of tension between Sofia and Skopje, after the diplomatic cars in front of our embassy in North Macedonia were set on fire. Will the motives of the perpetrator who has been detained come to light, as well as why Skopje accuses our country of a hybrid war? A month ago there was another incident in which a window of the embassy was broken. The topic was commented on in the studio of "This Morning" on bTV by journalists Nina Spasova and Valeriy Todorov.
„We must not succumb to provocation, because this is another provocation. Such things are constantly happening — not only the attack on the embassy, but also attacks against Bulgarians who are there, Bulgarian Macedonians. There are also attacks. A Bulgarian from Veles was recently sentenced to one year of probation for making a comment on Facebook. Cultural centers were set on fire before, but we see no reaction from the authorities, except for the formal condemnation of the incident. That's where everything stops. Even this person - a singer who set fire to the center in Bitola - had written on Facebook that he was proud of what he had done", commented Nina Spasova.
"Apparently this double standard - that nothing happens to some, while others are punished for elementary things and even receive sentences - matters. This language of hate, this constant suggestion to Macedonians that we are the “bad guys”, the coverage in the media - especially in recent days, apparently because of the upcoming discussion of the report on North Macedonia, unacceptable things have happened. There were journalists on the Internet who showed obscene gestures, there were rude insults and swearing addressed to Bulgaria," she pointed out.
"All this clearly makes ordinary Macedonians react in some way. Whether they are inspired or it is a coincidence — is not clear, as he said, because officially the motive is not clear. But unofficially it is claimed that he watched a report about improper parking, that the example was with Bulgarian diplomatic cars and that is why he went to set them on fire. Whether this is so, is not clear, but the fact is that the atmosphere created by politicians in North Macedonia has an impact," commented Nina Spasova.
"The first impression is that whenever there is preparation for discussing the problems in North Macedonia, especially the progress report, incidents happen, which suggests that coincidences are not so coincidental. Of course, this is counterproductive. Macedonian society is strongly divided, as far as we observe the situation from the sidelines — the opposition has more impulses towards appeasement and seeking a path to the EU, while the ruling party has a different approach", Valeriy Todorov pointed out.
"On the one hand, this is a result of hate speech, and on the other hand — it shows that society reacts negatively to Bulgarian pressure and issues of identity and language," he noted.
In his words, we are currently paying "tax" to this hate speech.
"I am trying to imagine what will happen if North Macedonia is accepted into the EU. The pressure with this language and these actions will continue. It is surprising that the EU has not reacted strongly enough to these manifestations so far. These are acts of force and discrimination against people who identify as Bulgarians," Todorov commented.
"It should be clear that after 1945 there was an artificially created state, with an artificially created language, but which is already writing its own history, let them not falsify facts from it", he urged.
Yesterday we also learned that a representative of the “Greens“ in Austria is proposing to devalue this commission, which has been trying to resolve the controversial issues between the two countries for years.
"There are always such MPs. Macedonia is lobbying seriously and financially, not only politically. They say that in this Austrian campaign in defense of North Macedonia, including the rapporteur, he tried to change texts — to drop a part of the report's text, which is ultimately very important", Nina Spasova pointed out.
"This time in the report, which is highly critical and says that North Macedonia is stalling, that nothing is happening and that there are no reforms, for the first time there is talk of distorting history, of falsified inscriptions and of deleting “Bulgarian“ and “Bulgaria“ from very serious historical documents, such as the Bitola inscription", she commented.
"It is clear that the idea is to create tension and through it to put pressure on the European Union — to accept a country that uses hostile language towards a neighboring country. This contradicts the Copenhagen principles, so I personally think that Bulgaria should react more firmly", noted Valery Todorov.