Hristijan Mickoski

A Macedonian cultural club was opened today in Blagoevgrad. Unlike the opening of the Bulgarian clubs in North Macedonia ("Tsar Boris" III in Ohrid and "Ivan Mihailov" in Bitola), everything happened without provocations from the Bulgarian side.

Several hundred people blow vuvuzelas and chant: "Bulgarians - Tatars and fascists" in Ohrid in front of the building where the Bulgarian club "Tsar Boris III" is to be officially opened, BGNES reports.

Some of the protesters also carry posters with inscriptions against Bulgaria and appeals against the European Union, which supported the "fascist demands of Bulgaria".

The VMRO DPMNE opposition party launched a campaign for a referendum against the 2017 Skopje-Sofia friendship treaty, which it claims is fuelling Bulgaria's push for concessions from North Macedonia in return for unblocking its path towards the EU.

"The latest proposal to lift the Bulgarian veto is nothing but a classic assimilation of the Macedonian people and Macedonian identity". This was said by the leader of the VMRO-DPMNE in the RNM, Hristijan Mickoski, in an interview with Serbian television. Mickoski gave the interview in pure literary Serbian, reported BGNES.

Today, the opponents of the French proposal to start EU membership negotiations for the Republic of Macedonia will organize blockades in several key places in the country, reported a BGNES.

Today, the opponents of the French proposal to start EU membership negotiations for the Republic of Macedonia will organize blockades in several key places in the country, reported a BGNES.

North Macedonian police said they arrested a person who held a handgun and fired shots in the air at Thursday night's protest against the acceptance of a French proposal aimed at unclogging North Macedonia's stalled EU accession talks.

For the fifth night in a row, a protest organized by the VMRO-DPMNE of Hristijan Mickoski and the pro-Russian Left of Dimitar Apasiev took place in Skopje against the French proposal to start negotiations for membership of North Macedonia in the EU, reported BGNES.

On the Brink

Bulgarian Prime Minister Kiril Petkov arrives for the European Council Summit in Brussels, Belgium, 24 March 2022.-EFE/JULIEN WARNAND

The leader of the Macedonian opposition party VMRO-DPMNE, Hristijan Mickoski, said that if Bulgaria's demands are included in the EU's negotiating framework for membership, Skopje would be better off refusing to apply to the Union.

North Macedonia's opposition would support a constitutional change as a concession to Bulgaria, but only if Bulgaria guarantees that is all it wants to end the two countries' dispute, the head of the VMRO-DPMNE party, Hristijan Mickoski, told BIRN.