124th Bulgarian Ant-Govt Protest Moves to National Stadium

The antigovernment protest moved to the national stadium in Bulgaria's capital Wednesday evening, where shouts "resignation" were heard at minute 14 of both first and second half of the World Cup qualifier with the Czech Republic. Photo BGNES

Wednesday evening marked the 124th day of antigovernment protests in Bulgaria.

About 150 people, according to estimates of the Interior Ministry, have gathered at 7:30 pm on Independence square in downtown Sofia near the Cabinet's headquarters, to stage an antigovernment rally.

They marched once again to the building of the Parliament, waiving the national flag and shouting "resignation," "elections," "mafia" and "red trash."

Police presence was upped even more than during previous rallies over the football World Cup qualifier between Bulgaria and the Czech Republic in Sofia, which Bulgaria subsequently lost.

The protest also moved to the national "Vassil Levski" stadium where thundering shouts "resignation" were heard at minute 14 of both first and second half. The action was organized in social networks.

An estimated 35 000 people attended the game. The organizers joked that the shouts were heard all the way to the Czech Republic.

The participants in the action also chanted the name of the national football coach Lyuboslav Penev to show support for him and make it clear they only demand the resignation of the government.

The 14th minute was chosen because it was on June 14 that the first in the record-long series of mass anti-government rallies took place in Bulgaria.

After dwindling in numbers, they strengthened somewhat last week following the announcement that Bulgaria's Constitutional Court has officially decided to allow lawmaker and media tycoon Delyan Peevski to return to Parliament.

The appointment of Peevski, a lawmaker and shady media tycoon, as Chair of the State Agency for National Security (DANS) on June 14 triggered mass protests in Bulgaria, ongoing for nearly four months now.

The cancelled appointment brought up the question of whether Peevski could return to his previous post of MP from liberal party Movement for Rights and Freedoms.

Center-right party GERB initiated a lawsuit, insisting that Peevski could not retain the capacity of MP because he had been sworn in as DANS Chair.

However, DPS argued that Peevski had not assumed office and had not had the opportunity to start fulfilling his duties and was therefore still considered an MP of the party.

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