‘No Good Reason for Protest Action,' Bulgaria's Interior Minister Says

Bulgaria’s Interior Minister Rumyana Bachvarova (C) speaking to the press after a meeting with police union officials in Sofia, 12 June 2015. Photo BGNES

Bulgaria’s Interior Minister Rumyana Bachvarova has said she sees no good reason for the protest action of police and prison officers scheduled for Friday afternoon in Sofia.

"The reasons they are giving to the Interior Ministry have already been addressed in our decisions and the policies we are pursuing,” Bachvarova said after a meeting with police union officials and Social Policy Minister Ivaylo Kalfin.

The unions are aware of those decisions and policies and the ministry has confirmed and updated the information made available to the unions, Bachvarova added.

“That said, I see no good reason or a serious conflict which could serve as grounds for the nationwide protest they are calling,” Bachvarova said, adding she suspected there might be other motives behind the protest action.

A planned rise in the retirement age of police and prison officers as part of a general overhaul of Bulgaria’s pension system is at the core of the protest. In Bulgaria, law enforcement officials are banned from taking strike action to press demands for changes in payment and labour conditions.