Bulgaria disputes census results in northern Macedonia over small percentage of Bulgarians

The Bulgarian Foreign Ministry expressed surprise and doubt at the recent results of the census in Northern Macedonia, according to which only 3,504 citizens, or 0.19% of the country’s total population, identified themselves as Bulgarians.

“The Republic of Bulgaria has repeatedly stressed that it is very important to create the conditions for the free self-determination of citizens with a Bulgarian conscience in the Republic of Northern Macedonia and for the guarantee of their rights. In this regard, we are very surprised to see the published We note that there is a dramatic discrepancy between these and the figures for the number of more than 100,000 citizens of Northern Macedonia who have personally submitted documents proving their Bulgarian origin and conscience in order to to acquire Bulgarian citizenship “, it is noted in a statement of the Bulgarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

In the last 15 years, Bulgaria has issued more than 100,000 passports to citizens of Northern Macedonia. The Skopje media notes that a large number of citizens of Northern Macedonia are seeking a Bulgarian passport in order to be able to work without problems in EU countries.

The same doubts were expressed by the President of Bulgaria Rumen Radev, who after the meeting he had yesterday in Sofia with the Commissioner for Enlargement Oliver Varcheli stated that the published results of the census in Northern Macedonia “are another proof of the injustice of the North.” in Northern Macedonia, who are not allowed to declare publicly that they are Bulgarians, while more than 120,000 people have proved in writing that they are of Bulgarian origin “.

This means, according to him, that Bulgaria must continue its veto policy at the beginning of the accession negotiations of Northern Macedonia with the EU, until it receives clear guarantees on it.

For a year and a half now, Bulgaria has been blocking the start of accession negotiations between Northern Macedonia and the EU due to open ethnic, linguistic and historical differences.

According to the census data conducted in Northern Macedonia last September, announced by the National Statistical Service on Wednesday, the permanent population in the country amounts to 1,836,713 people, down 9.2% from the previous year. previous inventory carried out in 2002.

58.44% said “Macedonians” in the census of September 2021, while 24.30% said “Albanians”. Also, 3.86% said “Turks”, 2.53% said “Roma”, 1.3% “Serbs”, 0.87% “Bosnians” (0.85%) and 0.47% “Vlachs” ( 0.5%). 0.19% said “Bulgarians” while 294 people (0.02%) said “Greeks”.

Source: AMPE