site.btaUPDATED Miners, Energy Workers Protest in Sofia Demanding Postponed Liberalisation of Electricity Market

A national protest was held in downtown Sofia on Thursday demanding postponement of the electricity market liberalisation and protection of the rights of energy workers. Participating in the protest were employees of the Maritsa East, Bobov Dol and Brikel thermal power plants, who want the coal-fired plants to continue working at the same capacities for electricity production and State aid for the sector. They said they would not leave until Parliament approves their demands.

The protest was organised by the Podkrepa Confederation of Labour and the Confederation of Independent Trade Unions in Bulgaria.

"Miners and energy workers are here again in protest, because only we can uphold the interest. We used to produce electricity and supply the region with electricity, and now the Serbs are buying wet coal from Maritsa East, drying it and selling us electricity from it," Podkrepa President Dimitar Manolov said on the rostrum of the rally. "All this happened because of the sick fantasies of various people, of course, well backed materially, with the idea of Bulgaria closed and erased from the energy map of Europe. We strongly disagree with this," Manolov said.

"I will wait for the day of the Nuremberg Trial against Greenism. In the same way that National Socialism was condemned in its time, so must Greenism be condemned, which has ruined Europe and made it so that there is no industry and transport in Europe and farmers are on the streets because they have no way out," said Manolov.

A delegation of miners is planned to present their demands to President Rumen Radev.

Last week on first reading, Parliament postponed by one year (to July 1, 2025) the electricity market liberalisation for household consumers; a second reading is scheduled for Thursday. Back in October 2023, the National Assembly amended the Energy Act liberalising the market from July 1, 2024; the National Electricity Company (NEK) would cease to be a public supplier and producer quotas for the regulated market would be abolished.