Security sector officials gathered in the garden of the Saint Sedmochislenitsi Church in Sofia on Friday. Photo: BGNES

The security sector officials will gather on Saturday for their second day of protests, which is expected to attract much more attendance than the one on Friday.

It is expected that Interior Ministry officials, border officers, military personnel and prison officers from all over the country will gather in Sofia for a procession and a protest, daily Dnevnik reports.

The procession, which will start from the garden of the Saint Sedmochislenitsi Church, immediately next to the building of the Interior Ministry, will pass next to the building of the National Assembly and will end in the Borisova Garden.

A protest is also scheduled to take place on Sunday, which will be exclusively in front of the parliament building with the initial plan being for laying a tented camp, where the discontent officials will protest while off duty.

One of the main reasons for the discontent is the planned pension reform and the introduction of retirement age with the trade unions demanding for a postponement of three years.

Initially, Interior Minister Rumyana Bachvarova backed the demands of the trade unions, but later expressed her support for the ideas of Labour Minister Ivaylo Kalfin.

Bachvarova recently commented that the Labour Ministry had made a compromise and accepted the idea for different retirement conditions for administrative staff and other officials in the sector.

She added that the opinion and the expectations of the society had to be taken into account and stated that there will be no more compromises.



Another reason for the protest is the operation on guarding the border with Turkey, which is characterised by constant posting of workers to the border, poor working conditions and inadequate remuneration.

Bachvarova commented that despite being expensive and exhausting, the operation could not be cancelled at the moment.

The minister revealed that competitions on the appointment of 200 border officers were launched, who were to assume duty only at the end of the autumn or even later at the end of the year.

The trade unions are also discontent with the planned reforms and lay-offs in the sector, which were devised in secret and have not been consulted with them.