VMRO

The new mayor of North Macedonia's capital Skopje, Danela Arsovska, has raised eyebrows after announcing she had tracked down a bronze statue of Ottoman-era rebel Andon Lazov Kjoseto, which was removed by her predecessor in 2018, and might call a referendum on the statue's reinstallment.

Ultra-nationalist parties VMRO and the National Front for the Salvation of Bulgaria, along with populist Volya, have agreed to stand together in Bulgaria's July 11 2021 parliamentary elections under the name "Bulgarian Patriots", the parties announced on May 20.

On May 4, Bulgarians mark 117 years since the death of the Bulgarian revolutionary hero Gotse Delchev.

Georgi (Gotse) Nikolov Delchev is one of the most significant Bulgarian revolutionaries. He is the leader and ideologist of the Bulgarian Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary Committees, later known as the The Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization.

Shared hero becomes bone of contention:

The feud erupted on June 9, when Bulgaria's nationalist Defence Minister, Krasimir Karakachanov, also leader of the junior right-wing coalition party, VMRO, warned that the work of the joint history committee had "stalled" over the issue of Gotse Delchev.

Ethnic Bulgarians, who live abroad and do not have Bulgarian citizenship, will be able to apply for a new type of personal document in Bulgaria, called the "Bulgarians" card. If they receive it, they will have the right to reside permanently in Bulgaria.

This envisages amendments to the law on Bulgarian personal documents submitted to the National Assembly by members of VMRO.

An online petition is calling on the European Parliament to penalise Bulgarian MEP Angel Dzhambazki for allegedly spreading "aggressive anti-Roma propaganda" in the parliament, in the media and on social networks.

The political situation in the FYROM is out of control after supporters of nationalist party VMRO -DPMNE’s leader Nikola Gruevski stormed the Parliament following the voting of Talat Jaferi, an MP of Albanian origin to the position of President of the country’s national assembly. According to reports masked clad groups have attacked journalists.

Macedonia's ruling VMRO DPMNE party has dismissed accusations that a poster for a state-funded historical documentary it issued over the weekend with the slogan "Sometimes with Politeness, Sometimes with a Knife" was actually a call for political violence against its opponents.

Nikola Gruevski, leader of Macedonia's main ruling VMRO DPMNE party, has been condemned for suggesting that if 19th and 20th century Macedonian freedom fighters were alive today, they would assassinate his main political opponent, Zoran Zaev, head of the Social Democrats.

A nationalist party leader in Bulgaria has declared his readiness to become Prime Minister if the coalition he co-chairs manages to set up a government.