“It is time the anti-Bulgarian ideology which is rampant in North Macedonia, and is deliberately poisoning our relations became a thing of the past,” President Rumen Radev said in Sofia. “The attempts in Skopje to build an identity on the basis of the Comintern fabrications instead of the historical truth run against the interests of the citizens of North Macedonia who want membership of the EU,” the Bulgarian President said further.

• Bulgarian cultural center unveiled in Bitola
  

In a comment regarding the accusations that the Bulgarian cultural centre in Bitola was named after Ivan Mihaylov, allegedly a fascist, Rumen Radev said: “Talking about fascism, it should be clear that Ivan Mihaylov is the man who said “No” to Hitler, refusing to involve Macedonia in a fratricidal war with Bulgaria. It was not Ivan Mihaylov, there were others who, after the Yugoslav dictatorship was established, were killing and torturing tens of thousands in concentration camps for the only reason that they continued to call themselves Bulgarian. That is what real fascism is,” Rumen Radev said.