MPs in the Bulgarian Parliament voted in the first reading for the amendments to the Law on Bulgarian Citizenship, which will make public the register of all persons with a Bulgarian passport.
Bulgarian MEP Andrey Kovatchev, known for his anti-Macedonian views, welcomed this decision on his Facebook account.
“The ceremony for obtaining Bulgarian citizenship will be solemn and public. The register of all recipients of Bulgarian citizenship becomes public. All our compatriots from the Republic of N. Macedonia who acquired Bulgarian citizenship in the last 22 years on the basis of proven Bulgarian origin and a declaration of Bulgarian self-awareness will be known. Thus, these over 120,000 Macedonian Bulgarians, including many former and current politicians, MPs, ministers, mayors, heads of departments, heads of political parties, media and television owners, journalists, commentators, as well as their families, will be publicly protected from the hatred, speech and discrimination of Macedonian institutions because of what Bulgarians feel,” said Kovatchev in his FB post.
