Bulgarian authorities have announced their intent to summon the French ambassador to the country to provide an explanation for the recent unflattering remarks made by France’s President Emmanuel Macron regarding Bulgarian migrants.
Bulgarian Foreign Minister Ekaterina Zaharieva also asked the country’s ambassador to Paris to deliver a protest note to the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The development comes after French magazine Valeurs Actuelles published an interview with Macron, in which the French head of state said that he’d prefer migrants from Guinea or Ivory Coast working in his country in a legal way to "clandestine networks of Bulgarians and Ukrainians."
Commenting on this situation, Bulgarian politician Krasimir Karakachanov described Macron’s statement as "a new manifestation of political arrogance."
"Nobody has the right to insult the Bulgarian and the Ukrainian people," he said.
The French ambassador to Ukraine was summoned to Kiev in order to explain the situation, with the Ukrainian foreign ministry later revealing that the envoy said Macron's words were taken out of context.
Bulgarian government also continues to oppose the so called “Macron’s package”, a European Commission's mobility package whose goal is to improve working conditions for drivers and combat illegal road transport practices, as Bulgarian road hauliers apparently regard it as discriminatory.