More than 100 Bulgarian lawmakers, ministers and journalists spent Tuesday night besieged inside Parliament by anti-corruption protesters before police evacuated the building yesterday in the latest instability in the southeast European state.
A political crisis that began over utility price rises and spread to accusations that private interests control state institutions has caused months of protests in the ex-communist state, which joined the European Union in 2007 but has struggled to live up to its governance standards.
Parliament was closed yesterday, barricaded and under heavy police guard, after speaker Mikhail Mikov urged deputies not to go to work until public order was restored.
Lawmakers were escorted out of the building in police vans at around 3am more than eight hours after they were trapped inside by protesters shouting “Mafia!” and “Resign!”, who tore up paving stones and piling up garbage for makeshift barricades.
European Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding, departing from diplomatic usage, lent open support to the protest movement yesterday when she told civil society groups in Sofia: “My sympathy is with the Bulgarian citizens who are protesting on the streets against corruption.”
“Bulgaria must continue its reform efforts.”
In Brussels, European Commission spokesman Olivier Bailly called for calm on all sides and declined to distance himself from Reding’s comments, saying what was at stake was public order and the right to demonstrate in Bulgaria.
My system is with the Bulgarian citizens protesting against corruption
More than 10,000 mainly well-educated Bulgarians have rallied daily in Sofia for the past 40 days to demand the resignation of the Socialist-led Government that took office in May after an inconclusive election.
The movement was sparked by the appointment of an influential media figure to a top security post, which many saw as an example of murky ties between politicians and businessmen.
The Government withdrew his nomination but the protests have persisted amid widespread disenchantment with the political class. The previous centre-right government quit in February after mass protests against electricity price rises and failed to return to power after a deadlocked election in May. The blockade of the Parliament was sparked by a government decision to borrow one billion levs (€512 million), raising the budget deficit to two per cent of gross domestic product.