North Macedonian Prime Minister hopes Biden will push the Bulgarians

North Macedonia's Prime Minister Zoran Zaev called on the Joe Biden administration to support his country's European integration.

Previously, this process was blocked by Bulgaria, which demanded that Macedonians renounce their own national identity, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.

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The pro-Western Zaev said today that the interests of China and Russia in southeastern Europe are an “open question” and therefore called on the new US administration to support European integration of the entire region. Including his country.

“I expect that our strategic partner and ally, the United States, under the new administration, will help the Western Balkans realize their strategic interests,” Zaev said at the Atlantic Council. – Our region has become a crossroads of interests between the EU and the USA, on the one hand, but China’s interest is also very present thanks to the development of the “Format 17 + 1” (China’s trade and economic initiative in Central Europe and the Balkans - ed.), as well as traditional Russian policies presence."

At the same time, according to Zaev, the citizens of North Macedonia are focused on NATO and the EU.

“Not because we chose one side, but because of values, and this is the orientation of 85% of the Macedonian population. Only 3-5% have a different opinion,” Zaev argued, adding that there is no alternative to European integration for the entire region and integration into NATO. – It was not by chance that we changed the Constitution and the name of the country. We did this to strengthen friendly relations with Greece, but we also did the same with Bulgaria through the Friendship Agreement.

Thanks to this, we became members of NATO, and this is a direct benefit for our country. And, despite the current blockade (by Bulgaria - ed.) on the way to the EU, Macedonian citizens have maintained their faith in European integration. We know that there is no other alternative for us, and we are afraid of any other alternatives. And the EU has no alternative, so I hope that we will quickly find a solution with Bulgaria, because it is also in Bulgaria’s strategic interest for the entire region to be part of the EU,” Zaev said.

Let us recall that Zoran Zaev and his Social Democratic Union of Macedonia, in alliance with local Albanian parties, came to power as a result of the street Maidan, which began in 2015.

The reason for it was the policy of the conservative leadership of Macedonia, which refused to join the sanctions against Russia, refused to make concessions to Greece regarding the name of the country and Bulgaria regarding the language (Bulgarians believe that Macedonians speak the Western dialect of the Bulgarian language), and also expressed their readiness take part in the Russian project “South Stream”.

Zaev’s street protests were supported by the USA, the EU, as well as George Soros, as a result of which the liberals managed to achieve the resignation of Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski, despite the president’s veto - to single-handedly form a government, give serious preferences to the Albanian majority, and then achieve a change in the name of the country.

It should be noted that the steps of Zaev and the team met with massive misunderstanding and indignation of the majority of Macedonians, who held street actions “For a United Macedonia” in all cities of the country, tried to storm the parliament, and also failed the referendum on renaming.

However, the “democratic” leadership responded to the opinion of the majority with repressions against dissidents and high-profile trials.

Zaev managed to achieve the country’s entry into NATO, now he is trying to bring it into the EU, but this process is so far hampered by neighboring Bulgaria, which denies North Macedonia a separate national, linguistic, cultural and historical identity from the Bulgarian one.