Protests against high fuel prices in Bulgaria block motorways, city thoroughfares
Motorised protests in Bulgaria on November 11, demanding government action against high fuel prices, caused traffic disruptions on major motorways and on boulevards in major cities including the capital Sofia.
Participants in the protest, organised on social networks, object to high fuel prices, car taxes and at the same time, low incomes.
About 100 cars blocked the main road to Greece at Blagoevgrad. Reporters at the scene said that the protesters were demanding that the Bulgarian government resign.
Close to 400 vehicles blocked a section of the main road to Trakiya Motorway at the exit from Bourgas on Bulgaria’s Black Sea.
Other places were protesters blocked traffic included the Shipka Pass, and a section of motorway near the town of Shoumen. Large numbers of cars, reportedly several hundred, were involved in the protest in Bulgaria’s second city Plovdiv.
In Sofia, there was some confusion about where protesters were meant to gather. Some went to the parking area outside the landmark Alexander Nevsky cathedral, while others gathered outside Parliament, where a separate protest against draft amendments to the Religious Denominations Act had been organised. Reports said that the main scene of the protest was supposed to be the former mausoleum on Battenberg Square.
In the early afternoon, traffic in Dondoukov and Tsar Osvoboditel boulevards was disrupted.
Participation in the November 11 protest against high fuel prices was notably higher than in a similarly-theme protest in Bulgaria towards the end of October.
(Photo via podtepeto.com)
