Bulgaria: Anti-government protesters briefly block roads to border checkpoints, key mountain pass
Protesters in Bulgaria seeking the resignation of the government and the Prosecutor-General expanded their blockades on August 14, obstructing – or trying to – traffic to border checkpoints and on a key mountain pass.
Anti-government protesters from Stara Zagora blocked traffic through the Pass of the Republic on the evening of August 14.
Bulgarian media said that a group of about 30 people, among those seeking the resignation of Prime Minister Boiko Borissov, Prosecutor-General Ivan Geshev and new parliamentary elections, blocked traffic on the Pass of the Republic near the village of Dimovtsi.
The obstruction, which caused a long queue of cars, lasted from about 7pm to 8.30pm.
Bulgarian police thwarted an attempt to block the E-79 main road between Bulgaria’s towns of Blagoevgrad and Simitli, the major thoroughfare on the road from Sofia to Greece, Bulgarian National Radio said.
The protesters attempted to block the road in the direction of the Kulata-Promachonas border checkpoint between Bulgaria and Greece.
Bulgarian National Radio said that protesters planned further blockades on the E-79, the Trakiya Motorway and the Pass of the Republic.
Earlier on August 14, protesters blocked for some time the road to the Kalotina border checkpoint on the Bulgarian-Serbian border, a key artery for those travelling by road towards western Europe. The blockade, lasting about an hour, caused a 15km queue of cars.
In Bulgaria’s capital city Sofia, on the 37th day of anti-government protests, the road intersection in front of the Romanian embassy was again blocked, after the evening before police cleared away protesters who had sought to block the intersection.
In Sofia, the tent camps blocking traffic at Eagle Bridge (Orlov Most), on the road in front of Sofia University, and near the Cabinet and Presidency buildings remain in place.
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