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Boyko Borissov rightly recalled recently that in 2006 his GERB party was founded with solid help from Germany, mainly by the Hans Seidel Foundation, which is affiliated with the Bavarian HSS. Even the name of the party was invented by HSS advisers.
Unjustified hopes
The reason: The West was looking for an alternative, after it became clear that even after joining the EU in 2007, Bulgaria was still mired in corruption and crime. Hopes were pinned not only on Boyko Borissov, but also on the breakthrough Tsvetan Tsvetanov, who has long been the right-hand man of the former mayor of Sofia and took over as Interior Minister after the 2009 GERB election victory. Meanwhile, Tsvetanov, who has also been implicated in corruption, has gone his own way, and the bottom line of the long GERB government is sobering. Although rejuvenated, the country’s elites remained de facto the same. And they continue to share not only the wealth of the country, but also the funds of the EU. Not surprisingly, the latest progress report on Bulgaria presents a grim picture. Surprisingly, the previous year’s report was significantly more optimistic. Has the situation worsened in just one year?
This year we saw tens of thousands of people in Bulgaria protesting against the government for months. And while they failed to really shake it up, GERB’s victory in the next election is not certain. To retain power, Borissov needs allies. And it finds them facing off against the United Patriots, who can expect relatively small but steady support among voters. Observers therefore believe that North Macedonia’s decision to block EU membership talks is mainly due to domestic political considerations.
Bulgaria is urging North Macedonia to officially recognize that the Macedonian language is simply a Bulgarian dialect. However, this de facto helps the nationalist opposition in North Macedonia vis-à-vis VMRO-DPMNE, which is now triumphant that Prime Minister Zoran Zaev will not restart talks on EU membership.
And the claim that the Macedonian language is just a dialect of Bulgarian can hardly be beat in its absurdity. Just as today’s Bulgarian language took shape with the rise of statehood as a standard language based on various dialects, Macedonian was created after the end of World War II by the writer Blazhe Koneski on the basis of numerous dialects spoken in the current territory. North Macedonia. Yes, it is true that Macedonian as an official language originated relatively late, but it is as important as the other national languages later coded in Europe.
An example: the current standard Norwegian Bokmaal originated in the 19th century on the basis of the oldest Riksmaal, and after the country’s independence in 1905 on the basis of the language spoken in the new capital, Christiania (Oslo). Until then, they wrote in Danish in Norway. But today no one questions the existence of the Norwegian language.
Offensive and provocative
This is why Bulgaria’s request to North Macedonia is insulting, provocative, unscientific and unrealistic. A very transparent company, motivated by internal political reasons. And the German government must use its EU presidency to persuade the Bulgarian government, and especially the prime minister and leader of GERB, in whose name the definition of “European” appears, to take responsibility for Europe and let the experts resolve disputes over history and language. The political elite in Bulgaria should be dealing with something completely different: finally writing down their duties in the fight against corruption.
Author: Gudrun Steinacker – Deputy Ambassador of Germany in Sofia from 2006 to 2009 and Ambassador to Skopje from 2011 to 2014. From 1991 to 1995 she also worked at the German embassy in Norway.
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