site.btaParliament to Hold Hearing of Interior Minister about Police Actions during Monday Protest

Parliament will hear Interior Minister Daniel Mitov on Thursday in connection with the actions of police after the December 1 protests. The motion for the hearing was submitted by MP Ivaylo Mirchev of Continue the Change – Democratic Bulgaria.

Tens of thousands of citizens took to the streets in Sofia and major regional centres across Bulgaria on Monday to protest the adoption of the 2026 State Budget Bill. Protests were held in Plovdiv, Varna, Burgas, Ruse, Pleven, Stara Zagora, Lovech, Veliko Tarnovo, Dobrich, Blagoevgrad, Sliven, Shumen and Yambol. During the protest, masked individuals vandalized municipal property, attacked police with bottles and stones, and set trash bins on fire. One police officer sustained a broken leg, and another was taken to hospital after people with face masks hurled bottles at the police and toppled garbage containers. 

The Continue the Change (CC) political party distanced itself from the acts of vandalism and violence that occurred during Monday night’s protest in Sofia. The party published photos on Facebook showing thousands of peacefully demonstrating citizens, accompanied by the message: "This is what one of the most beautiful, peaceful, and youth-led protests in our recent history looked like. What happened at the end had different authors, and we categorically distance ourselves from all acts of vandalism and violence".

Mitov will be asked to explain the actions and inactions of the Ministry of the Interior and the Sofia Directorate of the Interior during and after the mass protest in Sofia on Monday. Earlier on Monday night, CC chair Assen Vassilev and CC-DB MP Ivaylo Mirchev called on Interior Minister Daniel Mitov to resign, saying that he had allowed police officers to be assaulted during a peaceful protest and a peaceful march.