A proposal to freeze Bulgarian MPs' salaries for 2011 to their level for December 2009 provoked self-searching deliberations and violent exchanges of words in plenary Thursday.

The proposal was tabled by ruling center-right GERB party, which has a large minority or 117 MPs out of 240, and promoted by Parliament Speaker Tsetska Tsacheva.

Bulgarian deputies' salaries are indexed to salaries in the public sector, and a similar measure was put into force for 2010. The current proposal is to extend the freeze throughout 2011 in order to ensure further cuts in spending amid the lingering downturn.

Opposition MPs from the Bulgarian Socialist Party argued that this is a mere "populist move" on the part of GERB, and questioned its efficiency.

Rightists from the Blue Coalition, which are the Socialists' arch-rivals and until recently supported GERB, voiced similar concerns.

The Blues' co-leader Ivan Kostov argued that salaries could actually be linked to the level of efficiency of state officials and then some MPs could as well receive nill. He also wondered whether a similar measure is not in order for members of the executive too.

Volen Siderov, leader of nationalists Ataka, who have this far unflinchingly supported GERB, was apparently annoyed at those comments, and recommended that the Socialists and Blues "get together in one room" because of their univocal position.

This in turn provoked socialist MP Rumen Ovcharov to implicitly describing Siderov as a "political mongrel", apparently for his party's allegedly unprincipled support for GERB.

This only led to Siderov leaping up, calling Ovcharov "a lickspittle", and heading towards the tribune aided by two more Ataka MPs.

Blue Deputy Speaker Ekaterina Mihaylova called a 15 minute break to cool off the passions.

In a prior exchange of witticisms, Parliament Speaker Tsetska Tsacheva was arguing for moderation in MPs' official spending, confessing that she herself had the desire "to swim all the way to Antalya" for a meeting of heads of parliament she attended during the summer.

The proposal to continue the MP salaries' freeze was eventually adopted with the votes of GERB and Ataka.

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