On the National Telelvision, European MP Andrey Kovachev from EPP/GERB stated that his non-admission to the territory of North Macedonia together with the chairman of the "Bulgarian Memory" foundation Milen Vrabevski and three other Bulgarians, shows that the allegations about the existence of blacklists with European citizens are true. He called on the Macedonian authorities to provide an explanation for this and to say whether they intend to keep these lists in force in the future.

"It is apparently true what was said in January and February that there was a meeting with President Pendarovski with his services to draw up such a blacklist of European citizens with the argument that they somehow insult the Macedonian identity and language. I have repeatedly stated, that everyone has the right to self-determination. But in the same way, you don't have the right to change the self-determination of dead people, nor the language they wrote in. By the same logic, you don't have the right to discriminate against living people who now define themselves as Bulgarians, and that shouldn't lead to discrimination against them, not to mention leading to violence and beatings. Pendikov is still under guard because he receives threats," said Andrey Kovachev.

He specified that after his refusal to enter North Macedonia, he was told that he was not stopped, but at the same time he has a document that says the opposite. Kovachev urged politicians in North Macedonia not to use anti-Bulgarian rhetoric for pre-election purposes.

"Bulgarian citizenship should not be used for a compromising war, as happened in the Skopje mayoral elections. Having Bulgarian citizenship is not shameful. It should not be a big problem and it should not be shameful. There is not a single Bulgarian found in state, local administration, prosecutor's office, academic circles. It's dangerous, it's just uncomfortable, if you say you're Bulgarian, there's always a very negative attitude," he pointed out.

Kovachev expressed hope that the Bulgarian parliament will consider the changes in the law on Bulgarian citizenship as a priority, so as to ease and speed up the procedure for obtaining citizenship of the Macedonian Bulgarians.

Andrey Kovachev defined Mariya Gabriel's candidacy for prime minister as a chance for our country.

"We have a huge backlog to catch up on. We have put all this behind us and we need to catch up quickly. Mariya Gabriel is a chance for our country. We are trying to do everything possible with all kinds of options to have a predictable government in Bulgaria that will build relationships with our partners. Of course, we need someone who can immediately start the conversations with the partners about the backlog that they have.

Mariya Gabriel is not a person who lives in Brussels, but has a lot of contacts in Bulgaria, so to say that she was isolated somewhere is absolutely false.

"The topic of Geshev's removal is within the framework of guarantees for effective judicial reform, and if this outstretched hand is not accepted, it will not benefit Bulgarian citizens," Kovachev also commented.

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/Bulgarian National Television

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