Boyko Borissov, leader of Bulgaria’s largest party, GERB, on Thursday called for the resignation of Macedonian Deputy Prime Minister and Transport Minister Alexander Nikoloski over his comments about Bulgarian President Rumen Radev and Bulgaria, further adding fuel to the ongoing ‘missing flag’ scandal.
Borissov, whose government imposed a veto on North Macedonia’s EU integration at the end of 2021, said that if Nikoloski does not resign, “neither the Bulgarian president, nor the ministers, nor the parties should see each other and talk with them”.
The GERB leader also said that he would do everything necessary for the EPP to “know what (the Macedonians) said” about Bulgaria.
Borissov’s speech adds fuel to the so-called “missing flag” scandal, a major political issue in Skopje for the past week.
On 13 September, Bulgarian President Rumen Radev held an unofficial meeting with his counterpart Gordana Silyanovska-Davkova in Sofia.
Siljanovska was in Sofia for a performance of the Macedonian Opera and was invited to an informal meeting with Radev. Photos of the meeting show that the Macedonian flag was not flying in the Bulgarian presidential palace.
Bulgaria’s official response is that diplomatic protocol does not allow the national flag of the visiting country to be displayed during an informal meeting.
A very harsh response came from North Macedonia’s Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Nikoloski, who is seen as the right-hand man of Prime Minister and VMRO-DPMNE leader Hristijan Mickoski.
“The minimum of decency is to put the flag of the country whose president is arriving. And at least a person must be normal to do this,” said Nikoloski in an interview with TV Alfa, as quoted by Bulgarian state agency BTA.
He added that the Bulgarian president was not a “civilised” host.
According to the latest polls, Borissov’s GERB is set to win the next early elections in Bulgaria, scheduled for 27 October. If this is the case, the institutions in Skopje will have to work with Borissov in future negotiations with Bulgaria.
(Krassen Nikolov | Euractiv.bg)
Source: euractiv.com
