Sllavo Macedonians want Bulgarian passports before visa liberalization out of pragmatism, says Branko Crvenkovski

The same request, they made the Albanian politicians in Tirana: Before the liberalized visa, then become Population Count.

Branko Crvenkovski, FYROM president between 2004 and 2009, thinks the Slavo Macedonians who want to get a Bulgarian passport after the visa liberalization has sharply dropped, FYROM media reported.

Speaking at a joint press conference with Bulgarian Socialist Party Chairman Sergey Stanishev, Branko Crvenkovski said: “I cite your question and I do not agree with it: ‘Many citizens returned to their roots after Bulgaria joined the EU.’ Why did not they return before Bulgaria’s joining the EU?

Why in other cases in the region when a country joins the EU, do citizens of other countries want to have a passport to travel freely? Why after the visa liberalization, which was adopted as a measure in reference to FYROM, Serbia and Montenegro, did suddenly this process decrease radically? The people are pragmatic; they want to travel, get educated, trained, have business relations,” said Crvenkovski.

The same request, they made the Albanian politicians in Tirana: Before the liberalized visa, then become Population Count.

Tirana believes that the Albanians will be "sold" to the Greek passport if the General Population Count will be done before Europe offers to Albania for visa liberalization.