Bulgaria's Disgruntled Police Set to Protest, Too

The last time Bulgaria saw a police protest rally was March 15, 2009, when some 8 000 police officers gathered in Sofia to demand better working conditions. Photo by BGNES

Bulgaria's police officers are set to stage mass protests over their retirement conditions, the Syndicate Federation of Police Officers decided Saturday.

Syndicate leader Valentin Popov declared that the police are set to stage protest rallies even though they have not agreed on a date yet.

However, they are certain to back the November 30 protest rally of Bulgaria's two major trade unions against the retirement system reform of the Borisov Cabinet, which provides for raising the retirement age by one year as of January 1, 2012, regardless of a 2010 agreement that put the measure off till 2021.

"We are against the increase by 2 years of the serving time required for retirement of the state employee's at the Interior Ministry. We are going to protest against that. Second, we are definitely against the way the government is going about this – without any consultations and talks with the syndicate organizations, without even informing them first," Popov explained Saturday night, as quoted by BNR.

He revealed Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov has sent a letter to the employee's of his institution, which explains that "the social dialogue is ongoing even though the political leadership of the Interior Ministry is finding out about the planned changes in the last moment."

"This means that the social dialogue has broken somewhere else, at a higher level," Popov stated interpreting Tsvetanov's letter.

His interpretation might be a hint at the ongoing animosity between Bulgaria's two Deputy PMs Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov and Finance Minister Simeon Djankov.

Valentin Popov pointed out that his organization has initiated talks with the unions of the Bulgarian military and the Bulgarian prison guards for joint protest rallies.

The last time Bulgaria saw a police protest rally was March 15, 2009, when some 8 000 police officers gathered in Sofia to demand better working conditions.

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