Sofia: Metro Service Halted Between Slivnitsa and Obelya as New Station Takes Shape
Starting July 19, 2025, metro train service between Slivnitsa and Obelya stations in Sofia will be temporarily halted
The discussion scheduled Wednesday in the Bulgarian capital Sofia's municipal council on the future of the controversial Soviet Army monument failed to produce any results due to the lack of quorum.
Wednesday's hour-and-a-half-long debates on the recently defaced monument were described as "futile" and a "PR action" by some of the council's members, the Dnevnik daily reports.
After the debates, municipal council members from the rightist Blue Coalition accused their colleagues from the ruling centrist right GERB and the oppositional left-wing Bulgarian Socialist Party of deliberately leaving the discussion in order to ruin it and save the monument. The two parties were described as a "Soviet coalition" in a press release by the Blue Coalition, which used among GERB's allies after the ruling party took over in 2009, but subsequently moved into opposition.
The emergency sitting took place 10 days after an unknown artist stirred the spirits in the Balkan country and caught the attention of the top global media, painting the Soviet Army Monument's soldier figures to ironically represent a set of US pop culture characters.
The unknown street artist painted the bronze figures of Soviet soldiers in downtown Sofia, turning them into various US superhero and other pop culture characters – including The Joker, Wolverine, Santa, Superman, Ronald McDonald, Captain America, Robin, and Wonder Woman.
The emergency overnight cleaning of the monument, organized not by the municipality, but the little known forum "Bulgaria-Russia", chaired by Svetlana Sharenkova, triggered a wave of angry comments on the Internet.
Meanwhile, the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee, the Sofia Poetics organization (which organizes the eponymous yearly poetry festival in the Bulgarian capital) and the "Transformers" art movement scheduled a public discussion regarding the monument's future, also on Wednesday.
As summer reaches its peak, Burgas is set to reclaim its title as Bulgaria’s wine hub with the 13th annual Wine & Spirits Fest Burgas 2025
A herd of 1,000 sheep has been culled in the village of Sheinovo, near Kazanlak, after lab tests confirmed an outbreak of small ruminant pox
July 18 marks 188 years since the birth of Vasil Levski, one of the most revered figures in Bulgarian history
Efforts to contain the wildfires in Pirin are ongoing, despite yesterday’s rainfall in the Sandanski region that provided a temporary reprieve
Authorities in Shumen have received a fresh alert regarding the black panther believed to be roaming the area around the Shumen Plateau Nature Park
On Friday, July 18, most of Bulgaria will experience predominantly sunny weather
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