Skopje, 4 July 2024 (MIA) - Asked to comment on the results of the 2023 Census in Albania, Prime Minister Hrisitjan Mickoski told reporters Thursday that the previous SDSM and DUI Government left a vacuum for foreign propaganda.

“They are just using the vacuum that the Macedonian Government and the previous composition, SDSM and DUI, left. I read the comical press releases that SDSM is issuing, and I really can’t believe what they are saying. We, as a country, need to look after our people on the other sides of the borders, but also all over the world. I regret that this is happening, but the people responsible have a name, and it’s SDSM and DUI's Government. The Bulgarian Government, with its propaganda, is just making use of the vacuum that they have left to them,” Mickoski said.

The Prime Minister said the Government has "serious ambitions" to look after Macedonians everywhere in the world, including in Albania, stating that he would visit them soon.

“I would like to visit them very soon and talk to them. I want to restore their trust in their roots, in their Macedonian anthropology, the Macedonian language and all those attributes that arise with the identity, that they proudly maintain. I am also proud that we have brothers and sisters like that on the other side of the border, and we as a country will do everything to protect them and protect their centuries-old homes and their identity,” Mickoski said.

The Prime Minister said the “assimilatory policy of our eastern neighbor” isn’t only present among the Macedonians.

“If you look at the figures, you will see that it includes a large portion of the other citizens of Albania. This is something that I think should be analyzed more seriously. And now the question is being raised, since in Albania there are almost three times as many people who present themselves as part of the Bulgarian community, whether Albania will also have a condition to add them in the Preamble of [the Constitution] Albania. And I would like to see the reaction to that, but I don’t understand the logic why it would apply to us, but not somewhere where there are three times as many. These issues need to be approached carefully,” Mickoski said.

According to the results of the 2023 census, there are 7.057 Bulgarians living in Albania now. No citizens had declared themselves Bulgarian in the country’s previous 11 censuses.   

Photo: MIA Archive