Skopje, 28 October 2022 (MIA) – President Stevo Pendarovski received an invitation on Thursday to attend the opening of the Macedonian Culture Club “Nikola Vapcarov” in Blagoevgrav to be held on Sunday, however, due to the President’s prior commitments he will not attend the event and will instead send a representative, said the President’s Office in a press release Friday. “Due to prior commitments the President is not able to personally attend the event in Blagoevgrad, instead the Secretary General of the President’s Office, Mile Boshnjakovski, will attend in his place,” said the President’s Office. In a TV interview Wednesday, the President stated that he will not attend the opening of the Nikola Vapcarov club in Blagoevgrad because he had not been invited. “The organizes have not invited me, which I find odd, because some of the people who are opening the club, since it is a private initiative, met with me together with OMO Ilinden and other organizations of Macedonians in Bulgaria,” said the President, adding that it was the first official meeting with Macedonians from Bulgaria since the independence. Regarding the Bulgarian associations in the country, President Pendarovski said they should not be allowed to be named after, as he said, proven fascist collaborators. After the statements from the Ministry of Justice that even if the new Law on Associations is enacted, it will not apply retroactively, Pendarovski said that it is possible to reevaluate the work of the existing associations. ad/nn/