Ljupcho Georgievski, the leader of a disbanded cultural centre in Bitola, North Macedonia, called for constitutional guarantees for the rights of Bulgarians in that country. Georgievski, who recently received a one-year suspended sentence from a court in Bitola for inciting ethnic hatred, talked with Bulgarian President Rumen Radev in Sofia on Tuesday.

“The case against Ljupcho Georgievski and the anti-Bulgarian statements of leaders in North Macedonia are absolutely unacceptable,” President Rumen Radev said at the beginning of a meeting with Georgievski.

Radev reaffirmed his support for Georgievski and recalled that the office of the President was the first to declare support.

The guest insisted that Bulgarians in North Macedonia should be inscribed in the country’s Constitution, because, as he put it, “some are sued, others are beaten.” He vowed that the Bulgarian community will keep struggling, and their path will take them to the European Court of Human Rights. “Europe is governed by human rights, but in the Republic of North Macedonia the rights of Bulgarians are nil,” Georgievski said.

“Rest assured that you have my full support,” Radev addressed Georgievski. Radev called on all Bulgarian institutions to come out in active support of Ljupcho Georgievski, adding that he expected continuous work on the case.

On June 12, the Bulgarian Foreign Ministry said in a position paper that it considers the guilty verdict against Ljupcho Georgievski to be “totally unacceptable”. A court in Bitola had handed a one-year suspended sentence with a two-year probation period to Georgievski on charges of inciting xenophobia, racism, and ethnic hatred by posting quotes from the controversial historical figure Ivan Mihailov on the club’s Facebook page. Politicians in Bulgaria slammed the court ruling and expressed support for Georgievski.