Bulgarian Socialists Rally for 'Day of Rage' on May 1

People are assembling Tuesday in front of Parliament in Sofia for a protest rally against the center-right GERB cabinet organized by the main opposition Bulgarian Socialist Party.

As in 2010, the Socialists have chosen May 1, the International Labor Day, to rally against what they see as objectionable and incompetent policies by the government of PM Boyko Borisov.

Speaking in an interview for the Bulgarian National Radio Sunday, PES and BSP leader Sergey Stanishev said the austerity policies of the cabinet are leading Bulgaria nowhere.

"It's not just the socialists, a lot of people in Bulgaria are angry at the way they live, at the lack of progress, opportunity, and work," said Stanishev.

"People are robbed of all their social rights and guarantees, which are then not replaced with more economic opportunity," argued Stanishev.

In particular, he slammed plans by FinMin Simeon Djankov to use the so-called Silver Fund for retirement pensions to cover sovereign debt, as endangering both the pension system and Bulgaria's fiscal stability.

"In the three years since assuming power, GERB were quite agile in draining Bulgaria's state fiscal reserve and installing a regime of oligarchic capitalism," quipped Stanishev.