The political squabbling over relations with Bulgaria has flared up again. VMRO-DPMNE is sharply criticising Minister Venko Filipče, accusing him of staying silent about what they call Bulgarian provocations, and of thereby working against the state.

According to the party, Filipče neither reacted to nor condemned a diplomatic scandal tied to Bulgaria. They claim a diplomatic note from Sofia compromised the security of Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski - a serious accusation for which, as usual in disputes like this, each side offers its own version.

The Bulgarian question has long become a field on which Macedonian parties measure their strength, each accusing the other of weakness or of betraying the national interest. The citizen, caught between the two rhetorics, can hardly tell where genuine concern for the state ends and pre-election calculation begins. The question that rarely gets an answer is simple: what concretely happened, and what concretely the government did or failed to do - rather than who accused whom more loudly.