Bulgarian socialists are organizing local and national anti-government protests in March. Photo by BGNES
The Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) has announced it is starting local and national protests in March against the leadership of Bulgaria's ruling party GERB.
The news was announced Tuesday by the BSP leader Sergey Stanishev, who added that the socialists will also support protests by branch organizations.
In February, BSP set an ultimatum to the ruling party and warned that if GERB does not meet their demands, they will start protests activities.
The demands included increase of the average monthly wage and providing of a number of one-time social aid.
In Stanishev's words, in 2010 every Bulgarian citizen became about 8% poorer and the prices of food products went up every week, according to data from the National Statistics Institute.
"We cannot search an excuse for the increase of food prices in the international situation because many countries worldwide drop their food prices, unlike Bulgaria," said Kornelia Ninova, member of Coalition for Bulgaria.
According to her, the gray sector also increased significantly because of smuggling, cartel agreements and low control.