Rumen Radev won in Bulgaria. For Skopje, that is not good news.

Deutsche Welle's analysis is blunt: stability in Bulgaria does not mean flexibility toward Macedonia. Radev is known for his hard line on the "Macedonian question" and constitutional amendments - and the fact that Sofia finally has a stable government does not mean that government will be more accommodating.

On the contrary. Radev invokes the "principle of equality" - a formulation that in the Bulgarian context means Skopje must meet conditions before it gets anything. And we know the conditions: constitutional changes that are political poison on the domestic stage.

Commentators agree: "Radev has arrived, now we wait for him to leave." But the problem is not Radev personally - the problem is that every Bulgarian government, stable or unstable, uses the Macedonian question as domestic political currency. And Skopje has no answer to that except waiting.