On Wednesday, PM Mickoski reacted to Bulgaria’s claim that “an available language exists” instead of Macedonian.
He stated that it just went on to confirm the theses that government had long reacted to, i.e. that the constitutional changes were not the only demand of Sofia, which actually wanted to fully redefine the Macedonian identity. In addition, he called on the opposition to stand in the defense of the identity, despite criticizing its acceptance of “the ultimatum from our eastern neighbor then instead of listening to us then, too”.
Previously, in its response to the PM’s January 4 comments on the Community Rights Plan, the Bulgarian Foreign Ministry had said the issue of which language it should be in was an internal matter of North Macedonia.
“The document will be implemented precisely by its institutions towards their own citizens, while it’s logical it should be in a language available to them. Skopje’s choice to present the draft of this plan to its citizens in English is hard to explain”, the institution said.