SkopjeDiem Macedonia in English
Macedonian Prime Minister Dimitar Kovacevski criticized Bulgarian politicians, not Bulgaria’s policy – according to Bulgarian Technical Minister for Foreign Affairs Ivan Kondov, this was the explanation given to him by his colleague Bujar Osmani in Brussels, for the speech of the Prime Minister who last week from Reykjavik compared Bulgaria’s discourse towards the country with that of Russia towards Ukraine. The conversation between Osmani and Kondov in Brussels was not announced by the Macedonian MoFA, instead, in the announcements that were sent, it was stated that the head of Macedonian diplomacy met with European Commissioner Varhelyi and the director of the Brussels think tank “Friends of Europe”. Kondov, on the other hand, says to the Bulgarian media that he and Osmani talked briefly about issues that are of interest to both countries. “We talked very briefly. We talked about the issues that interest us. He tried to explain that de facto the Prime Minister’s speech was related to specific politicians and not, in principle, to the politics of Bulgaria, but I asked him why Bulgaria was mentioned in this situation and not the specific politician they were referring to,” Kondov stated. The Bulgarian minister also said that he informed his colleagues from the member states that, according to him, there is sponsored hate speech and violation of human rights in North Macedonia. At the meeting with the European colleagues, as revealed by Kondov, some of the European ministers demanded acceleration of the membership process for the countries of the Western Balkans, but according to him, for this to happen, the country needs to fulfill its obligations. Osmani commented for the media that there was no meeting with Kondov, he was approached and they exchanged few sentences.
