Prime Minister Zaev, accompanied by the diplomatic duo Osmani-Dimitrov, will go to Sofia tomorrow for meetings with President Radev and the technical Prime Minister Janev. According to the statement of Prime Minister Zaev, the public should not expect too much from this meeting, given that in Bulgaria there is no assembly and the country is ruled by a technical government, but at the same time he said what can be expected at the moment.

The current solution to the dispute is for President Radev and the technical government to accept the Portuguese proposal or some modification of it and to formally give approval to Northern Macedonia to start negotiations with the EU. But the final approval of that decision is to be made by the elected government of Bulgaria and its assembly after the July 11th elections. Of course, in order to fulfill this plan, it is necessary for Bulgaria to get a government and an assembly this time, and the forces in those elected formations should look favorably on the possible approval from the current Bulgarian state leadership. Given that Slavi Dimitrov's party is unknown regarding the dispute with Macedonia, it seems that a better solution for Macedonia's European integration is currently Boyko Borisov, who paradoxically is the man who imposed the blockade and now it is the best solution to remove it. The seemingly strange logic has an explanation related to the geopolitical struggle of the great powers, in which now Borisov tries to swim out of the concrete shoes that drag him to the bottom. At the same time, a possible Bulgarian approval of the start of negotiations for the country in September will be a better solution for Zaev before the local elections in October.

Two crucial things happened because of which Bulgaria softened towards the Portuguese proposal, one is the primary and the other is the secondary reason. The main factor for lowering the handbrake for Macedonia towards the EU is of course Washington. The Americans got involved in the dispute with Bulgaria and knocked on the doors of Paris and Berlin, reminding them that the Prespa Agreement was made and signed to stabilize NATO's southern wing and that no petty political policies, or religious and ethnic prejudices of the European bourgeoisie in are not as important at the moment as the struggle for supremacy over the Balkans with Russia and China. Thus we come to the second factor in the strategy and the sudden visit of Prime Minister Zaev to French President Macron. It is clear that the Bulgarians were not a party to be persuaded, but the French, and in this regard it is obvious that US President Biden was much more successful than the domestic politicians whom Macron told that he did not believe in their arguments. Macron's clear message that Macedonia deserves to start negotiations now and his additional reaffirmation that he will personally get involved in helping to resolve the dispute with Bulgaria raised the barrier lowered from Paris.

Recent statements by Bulgarian President Radev and Prime Minister Janev make it clear that Sofia, at least for now, has abandoned the harsh rhetoric of recent months and is sending conciliatory and constructive signals to its neighbor. Boyko Borisov's latest statement in which he calls on Bulgarians to put themselves in the place of Macedonians and ask what it is like to be blocked by a neighbor is the latest in a series of statements that indicate that the former Prime Minister of Bulgaria is preparing the ground for a solution. Borisov adds that the problem with history should be left to historians, which is identical to the position of the Macedonian state leadership and is one of the formulas for resolving the Macedonian-Bulgarian dispute. Borisov is now trying to factor in the work he has set himself as a problem, unbelievably but it is a strategy reminiscent of a classic mafia racket. When the bandits want to racketeer a bar, they first break it and then come and offer protection, and it seems that Borisov's past from his days as Todor Zhivkov's bodyguard have remained firmly etched in his mentality. Now the former Bulgarian prime minister is being offered to the Americans on a platter as a man who is the solution to their problem. Borisov is doing this after US sanctions targeting people and companies linked to the highest levels of Bulgarian corruption, after his admission that he was preparing to be arrested, after Erdogan "squeezed" the Bulgarian Turks and before the next blow that would come from Washington and who will surely be sicker than the previous ones. Borisov's promise to Prime Minister Zaev that he would work on the dispute when he forms a government has now been supplemented by a stamp from Washington. But Borisov is neither stupid nor crazy, and he will certainly not make the same mistake as Gruevski and now the Bulgarian power will play according to the notes that are offered and which at the same time offer him a way out of the bad political and legal situation.