VMRO-DPMNE’s MP, Vlatko Gjorchev, at his speech at the Parliament during the session for constitutional revision, stated several numbers with which he claimed that number of citizens drastically decreased in three countries that have joined the EU. But the numbers he gave are wrong.
– To be honest, this is an absolutely provable manipulation and a lie when someone says that if we succeed the Euro-Atlantic integration we shall stop the migration out of Macedonia. If the Euro Atlantic integrations do happen, it will help with the country’s safety, economy, the investments and everything else, but look at Bulgaria, which lost 2,1 million of citizens, Romania had 23 million and now it has 19 million. Latvia has gone from 2,4 million to 1,9 million… Absolutely, to be honest, that the Euro-Atlantic integrations will mean the young generations will remain in Macedonia. We wish that to happen, but if you speak affirmatively of the (Prespa) Agreement , do not use this argument because it used for grabbing people’s emotions and “vote for this if you want your children to remain at home” – said Gjorchev.
World Bank’s data about the population numbers in Bulgaria, Romania and Latvia, show that Vlatko Gjorchev isn’t telling the truth.
In 2007, Bulgaria had 7.545.338 and in 2017 it had 7.075.991 citizens. The number of citizens has decreased by 469.347 since Bulgaria has joined the EU which is far less than 2,1 million as Gjorchev claimed at the Parliament. Actually, Bulgaria has never had 2,1 million of citizens more than now. The largest number of citizens were evidenced in 1988 i.e. 8.981.446 citizens.
In 2007, Romania had 20.882.982 citizens, and in 2017, according to the World Bank there were 19.586.539 which indicates a decrease of 1.296.443 citizens. Yesterday, Gjorchev said that in Romania the number of citizens has decreased from 23 to 19 million. The last time Romania had 23 million of citizens was in 1991.
Latvia became a member of the EU in 2004. Back then it had 2.263.122 citizens, and in 2017 it had 1.940.749 which has decreased by 322.373 citizens. The number of 2,4 million citizens that Gjorchev has taken for comparison dates from 1998 when Latvia had 2.410.019 citizens when the this number began to decrease.
