Bulgarian Cops Mull Joint Protests with Serbia, Romania

Society | October 5, 2010, Tuesday // 12:34
Bulgaria: Bulgarian Cops Mull Joint Protests with Serbia, Romania Bulgarian policemen warn about staging large-scale local and across the border protests over the severe shortage of funds at the Interior Ministry. File photo

The looming protest rallies of Bulgarian policemen can be way more radical than previous ones, the Deputy Chair of the Managing Board of the Police Labor Union Federation, Borislav Maznev, warns.

Maznev spoke Tuesday for the Bulgarian National Radio, BNR, saying the Bulgarian police unions are negotiating joint protests with colleagues from the neighboring Serbia and Romania, in addition to country-wide protests.

The Interior Ministry employees further state they would wait for the cabinet's answer until October 15, but Maznev adds the communication between the outraged policemen and the government is not giving any reasons for optimism.

The labor union leader reminded that Tuesday is the deadline given to Prime Minister, Boyko Borisov, and Interior Minister, Tsvetan Tsvetanov, to reply to the letter from the European Police Labor Union sent in support to their Bulgarian counterparts.

Maznev, however, reassures, the Interior employees will continue to fulfill their duties over moral reasons even though they are protesting.

On Monday, the police union gave an ultimatum to the cabinet to begin working out by mid-October the staggering problems such as the lack of funds for consumables, uniforms, maintenance and technical inspection of patrol cars, and for overtime wages.

Maznev says the policemen do not want anything else, but to keep their current social benefit such as the overtime pay, adding the additional BGN 50 M in budget 2011 would not help them since the funding would go to outstanding payments under old contracts of the Interior.

The European Police Labor Union letter, sent to Borisov in August, declares the Union would monitor closely the negotiations between Bulgarian policemen and the cabinet, appeals for the fast solution of the problems and warns about alarming the European Commission and the European Parliament.

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Tags: Interior Minister, interior ministry, Tsvetan Tsvetanov, Boyko Borisov, protest, rally, Police Union, Borislav Maznev, European Police Labor Union

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