“Koprivshtitsa does not belong to a handful of municipal councilors. Koprivshtitsa belongs to Bulgaria, Koprivshtitsa is Bulgaria,” said President Rumen Radev, commenting on the decision by the Koprivshtitsa municipal council to have the town’s status of an architectural and historical reserve abolished.

“I call on all people this depends on, to immediately revise or halt the municipal council decision for altering the status of the museum-town,” the Bulgarian head of state wrote in his Facebook profile. In his words, any compromise in this instance is an attack on the national and cultural heritage of Bulgaria.