Bulgaria’s Protesters, Police Both Say: We Come in Peace

Grateful demonstrators in the Bulgarian capital Sofia are giving bottled water to policemen guarding their peaceful rallies in the scorching heat. Photo Facebook

Even though Sofia’s ongoing anti-government rallies have been peaceful throughout, the local police has taken a step further to make clear its good intentions.

Policemen in the front line of mass protests will wear reflective vests with the words “Anti-conflict police” stamped on them, it was announced on Friday.

The move is aimed at passing a clear message to the public – police wants tolerance,  control and dialogue with citizens, the press office of the interior ministry added.

Mass protest rallies continued in Bulgaria Friday with demands for the resignation of the government of Prime Minister, Plamen Oresharski, elected on the mandate of the Bulgarian Socialist Party.

In case there is no resignation, the demonstrators threaten to blockade of the National Palace of Culture, NDK, in downtown Sofia on Saturday, and have issued already an "Occupy NDK" call for all supporters. They say the rally is non-partisan.

Thousands have signed the organizers' page on Facebook as the entire leadership of the Party of European Socialists, PES, is going to arrive in Sofia, at a time their Bulgarian leader, Sergey Stanishev, is facing mass discontent from his own country people and BSP party.

Bulgarian citizens have staged mass protest rallies for 7 days in a row, sparked by the outrageous decision of the government and the Parliament to appoint controversial media mogul and lawmaker Delyan Peevski as Chair of the State Agency for National Security (DANS) with Stanishev seen as one of the masterminds behind the plan.

A press release posted on the official site of PES informs that the party Council sitting is scheduled to be held Saturday in Sofia. It will take place in NDK.

Organizers of the protest warn they will be there in large numbers at 10 am Saturday to show PES how much Bulgarians "love" Stanishev.

The sitting is the annual gathering of parties in Europe with socialist, social-democrat, and labor orientation. Many guests and PES activists are going to attend as well.

The gathering of the women branch of PES starts Friday.

The PES Council is going to work on planning the policies of European Socialists and will launch the European left wing's preparations for the elections for European Parliament in 2014.

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