North Macedonian Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski said that the rights of Bulgarians in North Macedonia were respected, but the same could not be said about the "Macedonian minority" in Bulgaria, BGNES reports. At a meeting at Johns Hopkins University in the USA, Mickoski said that "the country must change its Constitution for the sake of a few hundred people", as he contemptuously called his fellow citizens with Bulgarian self-awareness.

The Socialist Party of Macedonia, which is a coalition partner of the ruling VMRO-DPMNE, demanded the denunciation of the Treaty of Friendship, Good-Neighbourliness and Cooperation with Bulgaria. The party said in a statement that the leaders of North Macedonia's eastern and southern neighbours were “acting according to imperial demands against the interests of the Macedonian people."