The Interior Ministry prepares for a protest

Police prepare for protests by demanding wage increases. Silent warning protests will begin in various places around the country next week. If the government refuses to negotiate, there will be national governments.

The coronavirus was in the Interior Ministry for only one month

In recent months, Prime Minister Boyko Borissov has repeatedly praised police officers for their good work in the spring, when there were checkpoints in all regional cities. Employees of the Ministry of the Interior, together with doctors and health inspectors, are constantly in the front line both during inspections and during the control of people in quarantine. At the same time, however, police officers were excluded from a government decree in early September that increased the salaries of employees at nearly 30 institutions, including the tax, customs and basin directorates.

“Obviously, the Ministry of the Interior, which together with medical workers across the country mainly bore the brunt of the measures implemented and continues to suffer the worst consequences of the crisis, did not deserve a material incentive. The thousands of accumulated hours of work of colleagues in all weather conditions, in direct contact with quarantined and sick people, the hundreds of sick employees, the risks of contagion from the front line in which they work, are clearly insufficient to avoid similar discriminations and offensive respond“said the largest police union – SFSMVR.

So far, the police have received a one-time reward of BGN 650 for their work on the front line, but this money has not reached everyone. According to the SFSMVR, they were distributed according to unclear criteria, so of two employees in the same position in a department, only one received a bonus. At the same time, police officers remain on the front line and there is no information on how many of them have been infected with the coronavirus.

Willingness to protest

The SFSMVR insists on the immediate start of negotiations for a salary increase as of January 1. They have already declared their willingness to protest. If their demands are not accepted, there will be warning protests and subsequently there may be mass protests.

The last big police protests were almost three years ago. The then Interior Minister, Valentin Radev, claimed that there was no money to increase wages. The officials then threatened to protest during the next EU presidency, which they were mainly protecting. Then funds were found urgently.