Bulgarian Foundation Calls Off Blockade of Three Border Crossings - in Two Hours, After One Sentence From Sofia

The planned blockade of three border crossings between Macedonia and Bulgaria - set for Sunday at Deve Bair, Delchevo and Novo Selo - has been called off. A single sentence from the top of Bulgarian diplomacy was enough for the organizers to back out in a hurry.

The protest, planned to last two hours, was to be organized by the "Macedonia" foundation, whose president Viktor Stojanov announced the cancellation. The trigger for the about-face: Bulgarian diplomat Velislava Petrova-Chamova called the blockade "counterproductive." The institutions have already been told there will be no blockade.

The detail worth noting is how quickly something billed as a citizens' initiative was scrapped the moment diplomacy said it didn't suit it. When an "independent" foundation changes its plan within two hours of a comment from official Sofia, it's fair to ask how independent it really is - and whose interest the blockade was actually serving from the start.

For the people on both sides of the border, every blockade threat means real damage - traffic at a standstill, people stuck, trade cut off. So it's good that there will be no blockade. But the question that lingers hangs over the whole Macedonian-Bulgarian relationship: how long will every tension be played out across the border crossings, on the backs of ordinary people who have nothing to do with the big politics?