site.btaAleksandar Nikoloski: Irresponsible Politicians Create Hysteria, Use North Macedonia in Election Rhetoric

North Macedonia’s Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandar Nikoloski on Thursday reacted to calls by Bulgarian politicians for his resignation over his statement about the absence of North Macedonia’s flag at an informal meeting between Presidents Rumen Radev and Gordana Siljanovska last week. 
 
In a video message published on the VMRO-DPMNE YouTube channel Nikoloski says he wants to respond to the "hysteria created by some irresponsible Bulgarian politicians" by including the Republic of North Macedonia in the election rhetoric in Bulgaria. In his words, North Macedonia cannot be the answer to the "seventh consecutive unsuccessful elections" that will take place in Bulgaria, and "the crisis in Bulgarian society has been created precisely by those politicians who, instead of giving an answer to the public about the high level of corruption and crime in Bulgaria, about the weak economy, are getting involved with (North) Macedonia."  
  
In the video Nikoloski notes that the fact that politicians in Bulgaria are getting involved with North Macedonia shows that the country neither wants good neighbourly relations, nor wants North Macedonia to become an EU member, much less to progress towards the EU, but wants to block its European integration and "use it as an election topic".  

According to him, his words have been taken out of context and are not properly understood in Bulgaria, which is proof "that the Macedonian and Bulgarian languages are different because what has one context in the Macedonian language obviously has another context in Bulgarian".   
  
Nikoloski says that he stands by his words that it is "uncultured, uncivilized and inappropriate" for a president of a country not to be honored by having the flag of their country present and "there is no justification for Rumen Radev". 

"Did he want to send a message that they don't actually recognize Macedonia, which may be their long-standing dream? We are aware of who we are. We are a separate nation, a Macedonian nation, a separate people - a Macedonian people, we speak our own language, Macedonian, different from all other languages, we have our own history, our own culture. We know who we are and we do not have to prove ourselves to anyone. And those who want to give a different reading of history are politicians from the 19th, not the 21st century," Nikoloski says in the video.

Nikoloski addresses the "politicians who urged for his resignation", calling them unworthy, "accused of crime and corruption", "who are seen in photos sleeping next to gold bars and hundreds of thousands of euros".   

It is a pity that the good relations between two close peoples, of  Macedonia and Bulgaria, are being destroyed by corrupt politicians who can do nothing for their own country except to instill anger and hatred. As the one that I mentioned with the gold bars, another one considered as a big oligarch in Bulgaria, a number of other corrupt politicians, and the one who is Bulgaria’s president and who did not show one bit of decorum and civilized behavior to place the Macedonian flag during the visit of the Macedonian president," Nikoloski said. 
 
Nikoloski says that he and the ruling party VMRO-DPMNE will continue to defend the national interests because their goal is for it to progress and become a member of the European Union, but to walk the path to the European Union "with pride and dignity, not humiliation".