In an interview with the Croatian RTL, the President of the Republic of North Macedonia, Stevo Pendarovski, expressed disappointment with “some senior officials not only in the EU, but also in individual countries”, who could not convince Bulgaria not to set “unacceptable conditions” before the entry of North Macedonia into the EU, informs MKD.mk. Pendarovski specifies that, as president, he will not name the countries with which he is disappointed, but according to him, the USA, which is not a member of the EU, has been much more active “against Bulgaria and against Brussels” than some member states.< /p>
„Completely unexpected for us three to three and a half years ago in a memorandum, Bulgaria demanded the impossible, because this does not happen in normal societies, at least not in Europe. Bulgaria asked us to change our identity. And as Bulgarians, let's enter the EU. They (Bulgarians) entered with a non-European, anti-European policy and tried to resolve some bilateral disputes according to their historical narrative. The opposition (in North Macedonia), which was trying to earn dividends on this card, unfortunately managed to make this issue a major issue before the elections. They (the opposition) say “no, there will be no compromise with Bulgaria”, and we needed these (their) votes in the parliament, because in order to change the constitution, a two-thirds majority is needed. We failed to do it and now we are in self-blockade, says Pendarovski, quoted by the publication.
In his interview, Stevo Pendarovski also talked about the drastic decline in the trust of the citizens of North Macedonia towards the EU, which has halved in the last two years.
„We have always had high percentages - 70, 80, even 90 percent support for joining the EU. If you now specifically ask Macedonians if they want (Northern) Macedonia to be a member of the EU, 80 percent say “yes”, but when you ask them if they want (Northern) Macedonia to become a member of the EU on the condition that Bulgarians are included in the constitution – 80 percent say “no”, Pendarovski pointed out in his interview, quoted by the media in North Macedonia.