North Macedonia

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.

The Prime Ministers of Bulgaria and the Republic of North Macedonia, Galab Donev and Dimitar Kovachevski, launched the construction of the railway line from Kumanovo to Beljakovce in our southwestern neighbor. The line should reach the border with Bulgaria and is part of the trans-European corridor number 8 - a project more than two decades old.

According to her, the European Union has prepared a support package for the entire Western Balkans to help it deal with the energy crisis.

The European Union will send officers from its Frontex border agency to help Macedonian border guards fight illegal migrants after signing an agreement on October 20 to do so.

So far, it has been blocked by Bulgaria's veto on North Macedonia's EU integration, as Sofia did not allow the agreement to be signed in the Macedonian language.

Today, the Bulgarian cultural center "Tsar Boris III" in Ohrid was attacked, which was opened only a few days ago by Dr. Milen Vrabevski - the main supporter of the Bulgarian associations in North Macedonia.

Slovenian energy company GEN-I has constructed the largest solar plant in North Macedonia, which will generate 25,000 megawatt hours of green energy to meet the needs of more than 5,500 households, GEN-I said in a statement on Tuesday. The plant was connected to the Macedonian grid in September but the inauguration event was held in the capital of Skopje on Tuesday.

"I think that this is a provocation that does no good," said the Prime Minister of North Macedonia, Dimitar Kovachevski, on the occasion of the protests yesterday at the opening of the Bulgarian club "Tsar Boris III" in Ohrid.

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 threat of 'Bulgarianization' is a fiction of the opposition with the aim of instilling fear among Macedonians", believes the president of our southwestern neighbor, Stevo Pendarovski. He announced this in an interview with the local publication "Trilling".

Police, prosecutors, courts and social services in North Macedonia are still failing to recognise the various ways in which gender-based violence can occur, often leaving victims with nowhere to turn.