If there is one area in which Bulgaria and North Macedonia can truly build sincere, open and historically dispute-free relations, it is probably not the European Union, it is not history and it is certainly not the joint commission on historical issues. It is Space.
Slavi Trifonov’s idea for Bulgaria and North Macedonia to send cosmonauts together (ed. – two Bulgarians and one Macedonian, which in itself is an occasion for fierce debate as to why this should be the case and what could come of it) caused a real furor in Skopje in 2021. The reactions there were telling: “Bulgaria is not letting us into the EU, but it will lead us into Space“. In fact, it is difficult to come up with a more accurate description of the relations between the two countries in recent years. On Earth, we cannot come to an agreement about the past, after decades of failing to resolve issues of history, hate speech, identity, etc. So, most likely, the next logical historical step is to transfer these disputes to orbit. At least there are no archives, no monuments, and no one to argue whether Alexander the Great was Macedonian, Bulgarian, Greek, or an intergalactic citizen.
In fact, the space program may turn out to be a natural extension of the state ideology in North Macedonia. For years, the political elite in Skopje built a national identity around the figure of Alexander the Great - a man who crossed continents and conquered new territories. The difference is that Alexander reached India, and his successors today look with ambition to Space, while they cannot yet reach Sofia by train.
Will Space really not turn out to be the only place where Bulgarian-Macedonian relations have a chance to be completely conflict-free? There will be no disputes over who built Corridor No. 8, because there simply is none. There will be no questions about why there has been no railway connection between Sofia and Skopje for decades, because trains do not run in Space. There will be no debates about European integration, because the European Commission still does not have a directorate for interstellar relations.
While experts from both sides note that there is much more work to be done on Earth - infrastructure, economy, education, cultural exchange and European integration, the political conversation seems to be increasingly shifting to symbolic gestures and big dreams. And when you can't build a railway between two capitals for more than three decades, naturally the next goal is to build a space rocket.
Perhaps that's why Slavi Trifonov's idea is not at all to be thrown into the dustbin of history, but rather is valuable. It doesn't solve any real problem between Sofia and Skopje, but at least it shows where ideal relations between the two countries could exist – at a safe distance from Earth.
And if ever a Bulgarian and a North Macedonian astronaut actually land together on the Moon, Mars or anywhere in the Universe (ed. – here the question arises, which could literally lead to war, because there will certainly be an intergalactic Balkan battle over who will be the first to set foot on the planet to say that “that's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind“), only one worry remains. After they plant their flags, let no one declare that this part of the universe was actually always part of the ancient Macedonian civilization and that the first settlers there spoke a language close to modern Macedonian. Because if we transfer the Balkan historical disputes to space, even the universe may turn out to be narrow.
So, if Bulgaria and North Macedonia ever manage to build a completely open, honest and historically complex relationship, it will probably happen somewhere in zero gravity. Because on Earth, political gravity is still too strong.