As announced, Bulgarian MEPs have started action related to the issue of the Macedonian language and identity on the eve of the EP’s plenary session on Rapporteur Thomas Waitz’s draft-report.
Amendments obtained by Kanal 5 also include several from the EPP, Renew, and S&D asking for full removal of the recognition of the Macedonian language and identity.
Also, in the part of the paragraph where it is asked that they be fully respected, what’s asked for is an erasure of the words in the part concerning affirmation of the “the importance of unequivocally recognizing and respecting the Macedonian language and identity as an integral part of the nation’s heritage”.
If the amendments from the three largest Groups at the EP are not adopted, Bulgarian MEPs have also prepared a so-called plan B. Ivaylo Valchev of There Is Such a People has submitted 10 amendments again asking for, at three positions, the adjective “contemporary” to be used before “the Macedonian language and identity”.
Additionally, there is a part asking for, inter alia, finding a narrative on the “common history” of North Macedonia and Bulgaria, as well as for deploring the “discrimination” of Bulgarians in the former.
On Thursday, PM Hristijan Mickoski said he’d warned there would be such engineering, adding that the attempt to introduce the adjective “contemporary” was as bad as the erasure issue.
As he pointed out, the “exhibitions” that would take place in the country during the seven-year term of the previous cabinet have led to a situation where there is now Taliban-like erasure of the Macedonian identity and language from the report.
“That’s what [ex-Foreign Minister] Bujar Osmani, [ex-PM] Dimitar Kovacevski, [ex-Deputy PM for European Affairs] Bojan Maricic, and the rest have done to us”, the PM stressed.