150th Anniversary of Goce Delcev’s Birth Marked

Culture Minister Bisera Kostadinovska-Stojchevska and Bulgarian Foreign Minister Teodora Genchovska, on Friday, one after another, laid flowers at Goce Delcev’s grave in Skopje on the occasion of the 150^th anniversary of his birth. The presence of the two delegations had been announced by Bulgarian PM Kiril Petkov as joint celebration, while North Macedonia’s Government announced the event as state marking with participation of a delegation from Bulgaria. Neither Genchovska nor Kostadinovska-Stojchevska made comments after the event, which saw strengthened police security. However, a group of around 150 people booed President Stevo Pendarovski and the delegations from the Government and Parliament as they entered and left St Spas Church. According to Pendarovski, the joint honouring is nothing problematic even though the History Commission still hasn’t adjusted its stand on the matter. A delegation of VMRO-DPMNE, too, led by Hristijan Mickoski laid flowers. However, it was not booed. In fact, it received an applause.