site.btaProtesting Miners, Energy Workers Lift Blockades of Major Road Junctions in Southeast

Protesting Bulgarian miners and energy workers on Thursday lifted their 14-day-long blockades of three major road junctions in the Stara Zagora area. The road sections are expected to reopen to traffic on Friday.

The workers blocked the roads on September 29 to press demands for the Government to pull out the territorial just transition plans for the coal-producing areas that were submitted to the European Commission on September 30.

"We do not relent, we are simply withdrawing from the blockades and are carrying on with further actions by which we believe we can have our grievances redressed. We won't give up, we keep soliciting support from the entire Bulgarian people and will continue to the end," Biser Binev, leader of the Podkrepa Confederation of Labour Chapter at the Maritsa East 2 TPP, told journalists at 8:00 p.m. on Thursday. He stressed that the protesters were "withdrawing from all motorways and roads because we don’t want to inconvenience our fellow citizens and compatriots any longer."

The protesters recalled that they are collecting signatures for the start of a work stoppage.

The three blockaded road sections (on Trakia Motorway, the Stara Zagora - Haskovo road and the Pass of the Republic in the Balkan Range at Gurkovo) will reopen to traffic on Friday morning after police inspection, BTA learnt from Senior Commissioner Lazar Hristov, Director of the Interior Ministry's Regional Directorate in Stara Zagora.