Bulgarian political scientist Ivan Krastev doesn’t expect Bulgaria to block the start of EU accession negotiations with North Macedonia.

“I don’t expect Bulgaria to block the negotiations. The European integration of the Western Balkans is strategically important for Bulgaria. Moreover, it was within the Bulgarian presidency that it became a priority for Brussels. In this sense, a Bulgarian veto would be absurd. We would just look funny. Until yesterday we were fighting for the EU’s opening to North Macedonia, and today we want to stop them.  Not that absurd things are not happening, but I’m convinced that neither the Government nor the President would allow Bulgaria to find itself in a situation of total isolation within the EU,” Krastev said in an interview with Bulgarian newspaper Dnevnik.

As regards the open letter from thirty Bulgarian intellectuals, historians and scholars against the memorandum that Sofia sent to the EC and the EU members, which states red lines on Skopje’s path towards the EU, Krastev points out it is an important letter, as its signatories include some of the most authoritative Bulgarian historians.

“I’m not a historian, but I think the address is important because among the signatories are some of the most authoritative names in our historical science, because it clearly shows that historical disputes are not and should not be disputes between countries, they are disputes between historians. And because Europe cannot understand us if our position is that all nations in Europe are “natural” and only the “Macedonian” is artificial, and that it’s only the Macedonians in Europe who don’t know what language they speak,” Krastev noted.

According to him, the start of negotiations between the EU and North Macedonia doesn’t mean that Bulgaria accepts Skopje’s theses.

“Brussels simply cannot replace the need for serious historical science,” political scientist Krastev pointed out.