Bulgaria's Social Minister Ready to Resign if PM Shows 'Red Card'

Bulgarian Social Affairs Minister Totyu Mladenov has declared that he is prepared to resign if the country's Prime Minister Boyko Borisov demands it.

On Monday, Mladenov admitted that Borisov is right about criticizing his work on the reform in the sphere of retirement pensions. The Social Affairs Minister added that the dialogue between the government and the syndicates was not over.

On Sunday, PM Boyko Borisov declared that he had already shown "the yellow card" to Mladenov. The PM stressed that Mladenov acted more like a labor union leader, not a minister, and warned he would be immediately replaced the next time Borisov is forced to explain himself to people (instead of the Minister) some changes, for example why retirement age must go up with one whole year as early as 2012.

After meeting representatives from the country's two largest labor unions, KNSB and Podkrepa, Mladenov stated on Monday that the syndicates may return to the so-called three-way council with the business and the cabinet after they left it as a result of the minimum retirement age increase.

The two labor unions have set the date of the national mass protest rally in front of the building of the Parliament in downtown Sofia and a protest march for November 30th.

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