By Kerin Hope in Athens and agencies
January 14
Financial Times
Bulgarian police on Wednesday clashed with demonstrators outside the parliament building in Sofia amid rising political and social tension over continued energy shortages.
Witnesses said police broke up an anti-government rally organised by students and ecological groups after being pelted with snowballs. ”We are tired of living in the European Union’s poorest and most corrupt country,” said a statement by the rally organisers.
”This government is a symbol of theft and corruption,” said protester Alexander Atanasov, 31. ”They simply have to go,” said Tsetska Vachkova, 31.
When police tried to drive rioters away from parliament, some began to destroy cars and hurled metal bars and cobblestones dug up from the streets at shop and office windows. Police made more than 170 arrests.
The violence came as Sergey Stanishev, the prime minister held talks in Moscow on resuming gas transfers to Bulgaria, one week after the pipeline from Romania was shut down. Gazprom supplies 100 per cent of Bulgaria’s gas imports.
Riots also broke out on Tuesday in fellow ex-communist Latvia after a peaceful anti-government demonstration. Thousands of protesters had gathered in Riga to demand the resignation of the government, accusing it of economic mismanagement.
No comments:
Post a Comment