Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama has accused Bulgaria of pursuing a "terrible, disgusting and anti-European policy" against North Macedonia, Maxfax news agency reports.
Rama took part in a forum in Tirana organised by the Balkan Centre for Constructive Policies "Solutsiya", in cooperation with the Belgrade Centre for Security Policies and the Open Society and Rockefeller Foundations.
Vesela Cherneva, advisor to former Prime Minister Kiril Petkov and Deputy Director of the European Council on Foreign Relations, participated in the event from the Bulgarian side.
"Why are you blocking North Macedonia? To show how strong you are at home!" said Rama, adding that the blockade policies were "terrible, disgusting and anti-European".
"What do you want to achieve by blockading North Macedonia? What do you think you will achieve? To refuse EU support, that's the only thing you can do!" the Albanian prime minister added.
"This is the most anti-European policy you can imagine; this is the most terrible approach to our future. In the long run, what is happening is equally harmful and dangerous for them, not only for us. Madness! Utter madness! What does it mean? That now, against any country that wants to join the bloc, another country can come along and say - no, let's see who was here first when we went from monkeys to humans, you, or us," Edi Rama added and continued:
"The drop-in support for the EU is the result of exactly that! Nationalism is hijacking the EU; the Union is falling victim to the nationalistic impulses of countries. The solution is simple - bilateral problems should not be used as blockades. If a country wants to pretend that a bilateral issue is European, there must be at least one other country to support it. You cannot have 26 countries saying that this is a bilateral issue and only one claiming that it is a pan-European issue and suddenly it becomes pan-European. Instead of Bulgaria saying, 'well, we have a problem with North Macedonia, but let us put it aside and get on with the negotiations and the transformation of the countries', it is boycotting. Why are you blocking the negotiations themselves? Why are you blocking the reforms? Madness! Disgusting!" Rama exclaimed.
The Albanian prime minister compared the relations between Bulgaria and North Macedonia to the conquest of Constantinople by the Ottoman Empire.
"The same thing happened with Constantinople. While the Greeks were discussing whether the angels were having sex, the sultan conquered them," he said.
Edi Rama noted that it is dangerous when the past becomes more influential than the future:
"You have to look at the past with the eyes of the future, not the other way around. Our problems in the region started when we got states. Before, we had people here who lived together despite their differences, did business together, got married and divorced... Once we got states, the problems started. Now we are dealing with who Alexander's mother and father are, who is this, who is that... what nonsense! Do you think that the ordinary Greek taxi driver today is really the outstanding heir of Plato? I don't think so. This is serious nonsense, and we are all dealing with it to the point where our future is at stake," Rama believes.
Also speaking at the forum were Maylinda Bregou, Secretary General of the Regional Cooperation Council, and Daniela Schwarzer, member of the Franco-German EU Reform Group. The event was moderated by Nikola Dimitrov, President of Solutsiya and former Macedonian Foreign Minister. / BGNES
