Ruling Party MP: Unemployed Bulgarian Youths Are Mostly Marginals

Socialist MP Dragomir Stoynev presented youth unemployment statistics which spurred provocative comments from the ruling party. Photo by BGNES

Center-right ruling party GERB has termed the majority of unemployed youths in Bulgaria as "marginals".

The statement of the GERB MP was made Wednesday in response to criticism from the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) concerning growing unemployment in the country.

"According to official statistics, a total of 10 000 young Bulgarians changed their address registration and left Bulgaria in 2010, while the actual figures are probably higher," said Dragomir Stoynev from BSP.

He insisted that the number of people who had chosen to leave Bulgaria and change their address registration in 2008 was ten times smaller, or 1000 people.

"This is a clear sign that the crisis hits young people worst and they no longer see a future for themselves in the country," Stoynev commented.

The socialist MP claimed that youth unemployment in Bulgaria amounted to around 30%, meaning that every third young person had no future in the country and sought  to make a living abroad.

Heightened concerns for Bulgarian youths made the left-wing party table proposals for amendments to three laws, including an initiative for offering tax incentives to employers who grant scholarships to students and then hire them.

GERB MP Irena Sokolova responded to the criticism by saying that Stoynev was manipulating figures.

She noted that only 10% of the young people registered as unemployed were university graduates or PhDs.

"The other people belong to marginal groups," she stressed, adding that employment support programs were being developed to remedy the situation.

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