site.btaParties of Sofia Municipal Council Accuse Mayor of Shifting Responsibility for Public Transport Crisis

Instead of looking for solutions, Sofia Mayor Vasil Terziev is shifting responsibility to the Sofia Municipal Council (SMC) and the managements of transport companies, said BSP for Bulgaria municipal group chair Ivan Takov on Thursday. 

His statement came as a reaction to the protests, which stopped public transport in Sofia on Wednesday and continued on Thursday. The demonstration is held under the slogan “Decent Work – Decent Pay! No Transport, No Economy!” Their demands are for an increase in wages by at least 15%.

Takov, who is also head of the Standing Committee on Transport and Road Safety at the Sofia Municipal Council, pointed out that he has never been invited to a meeting of the Mayor and the administration with the trade unions. "We were isolated from this process and the result is visible," he stressed. 

Sofia Mayor Vasil Terziev is reaping the fruits of salvation in Sofia's public transport, Dimitar Vuchev, municipal councilor from the GERB-UDF group, said regarding the crisis in public transport. He directly accused Save Sofia and former Sofia Deputy Mayor Iliyan Pavlov of turning transport into a closed ecosystem and that even Terziev was not aware of what was happening. He stressed that Terziev was also completely unaware of most of the problems that occurred in this sector, which Vuchev described as a fundamental mistake by the Mayor.

This is not a union struggle for more decent pay, but a political attack on the Sofia Municipal Administration, Boyko Dimitrov, municipal councilor from the Continue the Change - Democratic Bulgaria group said. He pointed out that they understand and respect the right of every worker to fight for decent pay and better working conditions, but that the protesters were deceived by the union leaders, and most likely by political forces behind them, to join this illegal protest.

The Vazrazhdane Sofia municipal group proposes to ensure higher wages for workers in the public transport by increasing building permit fees, municipal councilor Deyan Nikolov told journalists. "We have a very low building permit fee in Sofia, which is on average BGN 10 per square metre and has not been updated in 15 years," he noted, adding that raising this fee would lead to revenues of about BGN 30 million in the municipal budget. Nikolov pointed out that Vazrazhdane expresses its full support for the protesters and that the Sofia Municipality has been playing tricks on public transport drivers for more than a year.