Since this is the government of SDSM and DUI, the Bulgarian demands are continuously growing and they are unfortunately being accepted by this government, hoping that way they will stay in power one more day, and unfortunately they are only continuing the crime that is happening, said the vice president of VMRO-DPMNE, Aleksandar Nikoloski for Channel 5's Hot Political Summer.

Nikoloski emphasized that what we see from the Bulgarian side is that there is no end to their demands, it is a 150-year-old strategy, which is very clear, and that is that Bulgaria considers that it is only by chance that it borders on the same people on its western border like Bulgarian and with a people who speak a language that is a dialect of the Bulgarian language.

"In other words, Bulgaria considers that it borders itself. In such conditions, to have such naivety in Macedonian diplomacy indicates either a desire for power or total amateurism. The government said that the Protocol will not be part of the negotiation framework, although it clearly states that the protocol is part of the negotiation framework. In it, there are over 20 foreign commitments for Macedonia. "Bulgaria will have its own interpretation of those obligations from the Protocol signed by Bujar Osmani, and now they have every right to demand implementation in their own way," Nikoloski said.

He emphasized that we will see requests to change history and geography textbooks, requests to change inscriptions and plaques in front of monuments, pressure to change curricula and to characterize the Macedonian people as a people without history, and the Macedonian language as a Bulgarian dialect and that we do not see what Bulgaria has committed to do.

"For example, here I am in the Council of Europe, 14 judgments of the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, all of them refer to the minority and linguistic rights of Macedonians in Bulgaria, but Bulgaria has not implemented any judgment. I do not see that the SDSM DUI government is putting pressure to implement at least one of these 14 verdicts. We do not see the reciprocity, when 100 things are required from Macedonia and none from Bulgaria. "Macedonia is being asked to erase itself, and Bulgaria should be the one to impose conditions," stressed Nikoloski.

Nikoloski added that this negotiation framework is absolutely unacceptable, and is not a negotiation framework for Macedonia's progress towards EU membership, this is a negotiation framework for constant blackmail, because the key elements are completely and exclusively in favor of Bulgaria.

Nikoloski emphasized that Macedonian citizens must be asked and give their opinion on accepting such a negotiation framework and that Macedonia has more conditions than other member states when they joined the EU, and that is why a referendum is required.

"Regarding the referendum, the question has not yet been defined, we said that during August we will hold consultations with the expert public regarding the best formulation of the question and the best search for the essence of what is a problem for Macedonia, which is the continuous blackmail of Bulgaria. The main focus is on the disputed Article 5 of the negotiation framework, in which two new ones are added under membership criteria for Macedonia, one is the Good Neighbor Agreement with Bulgaria, and the second is Article 12 and the protocols that should come out every year," he pointed out. Nikoloski added that there is no support from VMRO-DPMNE for changing the Constitution, that is a crystal clear position.

Regarding the national strategy, Nikoloski pointed out that back in March 2020, when Bulgaria's demands appeared for the first time in an EU document, VMRO-DPMNE requested a leadership meeting to discuss them.

"We asked to make a national strategy on how to act towards Bulgaria. Then Pendarovski said that there is no need for that work and that these are Macedonia's pre-election goals. Those pre-election goals are now the EU's official position translated into a negotiating framework. We must build a common national policy from which no one will deviate, so that it does not happen to us like the Declaration in the Parliament that we adopted, from which the government deviated", stressed Nikoloski.