site.btaUPDATED Protesters Gather Outside MRF-New Beginning Headquarters in Sofia to "Oppose the Mafia"
Protesters gathered Thursday outside the headquarters of MRF - New Beginning in central Sofia to voice their outrage over what they call mafia influence in Bulgarian politics. The demonstration was organized by the civic association BOEC.
The area was heavily guarded by police. Demonstrators carried Bulgarian flags and signs with slogans such as "A Prison Cell for Peevski, Not a Palace!" and "Free Bulgaria Without Peevski, Borissov and the Mafia!".
"Peevski" is MRF - New Beginning leader Delyan Peevski, and "Borissov" is GERB leader Boyko Borissov.
Speaking at the protest, MP Ivaylo Mirchev of the opposition coalition Continue the Change – Democratic Bulgaria (CC-DB) said that on Wednesday, Peevski instructed MRF-affiliated mayors in Razgrad and Shumen to send 200 people each, and Kardzhali to send 400, by bus, to the protest venue to seek an escalation of tension, but subsequently backed off on fear that the Government might fall.
During the protest, police detained a man who attacked and struck one of the demonstrators, as witnessed by a BTA reporter. In response, the crowd began chanting: “No to Provocation!”
Georgi Georgiev of BOEC told those gathered in front of the Monument to Vassil Levski that on Friday, a meeting has been scheduled to establish a National Union for Common Front against the Mafia. Bozhidar Bozhanov and Assen Vassilev of CC-DB and civil organizations confirmed they would join the union.
/NF/
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