Tuesday 30 July marked 50 days of protests in Bulgaria.
Every day, thousands of mostly young people gather outside of the parliament building in Sofia, calling for the resignation of the socialist-coalition government of Plamen Oresharski, which has been in power since May.
When the protests began in February, people were angry over rising energy costs. But the ongoing anti-government protests in Bulgaria are an expression of a wider discontent over corruption and poverty.
The protesters may be calling for the resignation of the cabinet, but they do not support any specific political force and the movement has no leaders.
Among the protesters’ demands – still not structured – are anti-corruption measures and amendments to the electoral code. The demonstrators also want citizens’ voices to be heard, a reduction in the number of MPs, and mechanisms for their dismissal when mismanagement is proven.
On Tuesday, 23 July, more than 100 MPs and parliamentary staff were trapped inside the parliament building for more than eight hours after demonstrators blocked all the exits with rubbish bins, park benches and stone blocks in an attempt to draw attention to their demands.
Riot police finally ended the “siege” at 03.00am, injuring around 20 protestors.
Critics describe the siege as an act of provocation; others say it is an expression of despair.
“Despite the tension the protesters didn’t attack the parliament,” says Ivan Dimitrov, a 26-year-old lawyer who takes part in the protests every day.
“The provocation and aggression came when the deputies tried to leave the parliament using force, which turned into a police aggression. For 40 days the protests were peaceful, without any clashes with the police. Unfortunately, the government and parliament remained deaf to the slogans ‘resignation’ and ‘mafia’ which led to an escalation of the tension,” Dimitrov told Equal Times.
Time for change
Today’s protests are similar in many ways to the ones in 1996 which led to the resignation of Zhan Videnov’s socialist government. Then, a difficult transition from decades of Communist rule into a free-market democracy led the country close to collapse. Empty stores and an inflation rate of 311 per cent led to the eruption of daily protests of tens of thousands of people.
Today, most Bulgarians are no better off. Despite joining the European Union in 2007, Bulgaria is the EU’s poorest member state.
Official statistics put unemployment at 12.7 per cent, with a youth unemployment rate of 28.4 per cent.
The Confederation of labour Podkrepa (affiliated with the International Trade Union Confederation) estimates that out of a population of almost seven million people, between 20,000 and 25,000 young Bulgarians leave the country every year in search of work.
There is little ground in Bulgaria for a middle class and medium-sized business. Both are hampered by economic instability and as a result, Bulgaria is a country of sharp contrasts.
The average wage in Bulgaria is 396 euros. According to Eurostat figures, GDP per capita in Bulgaria was only 47 per cent of the EU average in 2012.
While Greek citizens have been protesting because their pensions were cut about 900 euros a month, the average Bulgarian pension is 80 euros a month.
And despite government promises to boost pensions, economists consider this a risky move due to budgetary constraints.
Protests
The ruling Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) and the allied Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF) seem to be refusing to acknowledge the legitimacy and scope of the protests.
Bulgarian National Radio reported between 30,000 and 40,000 people attending the protests on the 9th of July while the Interior Ministry said there were only 3,000 protesters.
The rallies began on 14 June following the appointment of a controversial MP as head of the national security agency, a key institution in the fight against organised crime. Media mogul Delyan Peevski resigned as deputy emergency response minister due to a corruption case. But in spite of Peevski’s quick resignation, protesters continued to demand major judicial, political and electoral reforms.
According to political cartoonist Christo Komarnitski:
“If rallies in the 1990s were marked by enthusiasm, euphoria and the naïve optimism that things will be fine in the next morning, the present protests are shadowed by a huge hidden anger, despair and a deep [feeling of] insult at a 23-year transition to democracy which never finished.”
In an interview with a Bulgarian newspaper, scholar Alexander Kiossev commented that the current protests should be view as a continuation of past protests:
“In the past we were protesting against the totalitarian state and its mechanisms and against its behind-the-scene networks. We have dealt with the first problem to some extent.
“As to the second – the secret networks, dependencies, groups, etc. – it appears we haven’t dealt with them at all, it’s the second revolution phase.”
Despite the gloomy prospect of new snap elections, demonstrators seem to prefer the current upheaval to the previous status quo. Moreover, they want to show the authorities that power is not permanent.
Some observers say that some political forces might take advantage of the situation – for example the former ruling party of Citizen for European Development of Bulgaria (GERB) may become more popular following such widespread discontent. Others, however, are optimistic about the outcome.
“The protests give people more hope, especially if the citizens remain active afterwards. Only this will change the mentality of our politicians,” says Komarnitski.
