Dr. Sabina PETKANSKA
During the celebration of Europe Day, the start of the election campaign for the two-in-one elections and for the European Parliament, came chilling news about the election results in North Macedonia. The victory with more than three times more votes of the anti-Bulgarian and anti-European sentiments represented by VMRO-DPMNE, compared to the pro-European ones currently in power in the form of the SDSM. 43% of voters voted for VMRO-DPMNE and only 15% for SDSM.
These results clearly show the anti-Bulgarian sentiments in North Macedonia and especially the failure of the Bulgarian foreign policy towards Macedonia in the last 30 years. This is the result of our laziness and lack of interest towards our closest and most important neighbor of all of us. Instead of using the fact that Bulgaria, through J. Zhelev, was the first to recognize Macedonia as an independent state and to start an intensive cultural and economic exchange through investment, joint initiatives, radios, newspapers, at least one television, roads and businesses, let's clarify the work of the historical commission between Bulgarians and Macedonia, we slept through these 30 years.
And finally, to cap it all, Karakachanov, during his participation in the management with GERB, imposed a dialogue of ultimatums with North Macedonia. Bulgaria vetoed Macedonia's EU membership. Action by Bulgaria, which clearly strengthened anti-Bulgarian sentiments, facilitated Serbian propaganda, and we saw its crushing result.
Separately, Slavi Trifonov, with the Macedonia motive, overthrew the quadruple coalition government between the PP, BSP, DB and ITN of Kiril Petkov, which had started attempts to improve relations with Macedonia and negotiations to cancel the veto. With the overthrow of the quadruple coalition government, the process of Bulgaria's attempts to improve relations with North Macedonia and to start building economic and good-neighborly relations was interrupted.
The fact that the French proposal was accepted by the government of the quadruple coalition with the participation of the BSP, despite the opposition of ITN, Slavi Trifonov and his foreign minister Ganchovska, can only be considered a good achievement in Bulgarian international politics. For the removal of Bulgaria's veto for North Macedonia's membership in the EU and its replacement with a change to the constitution of S. Macedonia to reflect the Bulgarians in it, before the admission of North Macedonia to the EU. The guarantor of the agreement was the European Union and the achievement of mutually recognized results by the joint historical commission.
In Bulgaria, focused on our internal problems, until now we have never paid the necessary attention to our relations with North Macedonia. But with this election result for them, in which the anti-Bulgarian and anti-European sentiments have a crushing advantage, the Bulgarian political class must wake up for the improvement of the relations between Bulgaria and North Macedonia. And to realize its responsibility for building good neighborly relations and not to push North Macedonia towards Serbia and Hungary, thereby setting the conditions for disunity in the EU.
Now is the moment, with the election campaign in Bulgaria for the parliamentary and European elections, for all Bulgarian parties and politicians to pay the necessary attention to the future relations of Bulgaria with North Macedonia. All Bulgarian politicians and public figures should get some idea about the historical relations between Bulgaria and Macedonia in the different historical periods, about the current international situation and let us all build a common Bulgarian position towards North Macedonia, which everyone should share and pursue and lead to the inclusion of North Macedonia to the EU and Bulgaria.
The author is a candidate for MEP from BSP - Bulletin 24, preference 108