site.btaProgressive Bulgaria: Arson Attack on Bulgarian Embassy in Skopje Is Unacceptable Hate Crime

In a declaration, read on behalf of the Progressive Bulgaria parliamentary group from the parliamentary rostrum on Wednesday, National Assembly Deputy Chair Ivan Angelov said that Progressive Bulgaria condemns the arson attack on the Bulgarian Embassy in Skopje as a most serious violation of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, a deliberate attack on a symbol of Bulgarian statehood, and an unacceptable hate crime. 

"We express our deep concern about the impact of this attack against Bulgaria on the Bulgarian community in North Macedonia and on the ability of Macedonian Bulgarians to freely and confidently uphold their identity and exercise their rights without fear," Angelov further noted.

"We call on the authorities of North Macedonia to fulfil their obligations under the applicable bilateral and multilateral agreements and to ensure the effective security of Bulgarian diplomatic missions in the country, their staff, as well as the Bulgarian community and its organizations," Progressive Bulgaria stated.

The parliamentary group urged the authorities in North Macedonia to prevent any attempts to downplay, distort, or misrepresent the motives behind this crime, to ensure effective prosecution and justice in this and all other hate crimes directed against Bulgaria and the Bulgarian people, and to pursue an appropriate public communications policy underscoring the inadmissibility of such acts.

"We insist that the authorities in North Macedonia make every necessary effort to prevent hate speech against Bulgaria and the Bulgarian people in the public sphere and immediately cease the persistent and deliberate promotion of anti-Bulgarian narratives within the local community," Angelov said.

"We call on the European institutions to pay the closest attention to the continuing and deliberate escalation of tensions directed against Bulgaria and the Bulgarian people in a country aspiring for membership in the European Union, particularly with regard to the conduct of officials representing the institutions of North Macedonia," Progressive Bulgaria stated.

"We emphasize that the deterioration of good-neighbourly relations, one of the horizontal criteria throughout the EU accession process, is fundamentally at odds with North Macedonia’s declared ambition to join the European Union. Narratives of denial and confrontation, especially when reflected in the conduct of public authorities, undermine confidence in the seriousness of the candidate country's intentions and have no place in a united Europe," the declaration said.