President Rumen Radev has spoken by telephone with US Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Karen Donfried. The two condemned and described as inadmissible the arson at the Ivan Mihaylov Bulgarian cultural centre in Bitola.

• Unknown perpetrators set entrance of newly opened Bulgarian cultural center in Bitola on fire
  

Rumen Radev stated that the arson at the cultural centre of Macedonian Bulgarians in Bitola is the act of people who want to keep Skopje in the totalitarian Yugo-past and to hinder the European integration of North Macedonia. The Bulgarian President voiced Bulgaria’s expectations that Skopje will not allow this act of aggression against Macedonian Bulgarians to go unsolved and unpunished.

“The Assistant Secretary of State strongly condemned the recent arson of the Bulgarian Cultural Center in Bitola, Republic of North Macedonia, whose clear goal is to undermine the ongoing negotiation process between the two neighboring countries”, the US embassy in Sofia says.