site.btaCommittee for Protection of Lev Announces Protest on Friday When No-Confidence Vote against Cabinet Is Expected

The Civic Committee for the Protection of the Lev announced it would organize a protest on Friday, when the vote on a no-confidence motion against the government of Rosen Zhelyazkov is expected. The protest will press demands for the resignation of the government, the organizers said at a BTA-hosted press conference Wednesday.

They threatened to completely block the parliament building. 

On June 27, Vazrazhdane tabled a no-confidence motion over the government's failure in fiscal policy and the eurozone accession. The debate on the no-confidence motion, according to the parliament's draft agenda will be on Thursday, and the vote will be 24 hours after the end of the debate.

The civic committee also said that there will be a protest on Saturday evening in front of the Bulgarian National Bank. They added this would be repeated until July 8, when the final vote on whether Bulgaria will join the eurozone is expected.

"The protests started with a very simple demand, to respect the wish of Bulgarian citizens for a referendum, but after the government 'buried their heads in the sand', it naturally grew into a demand for its resignation," said Simeon Milanov from the Civic Committee.

According to the committee, the protests are representative because there are people from all over the country. “There are people with different views, but they know they want a referendum, they want the Bulgarian lev. We want to protect democracy and freedom in Bulgaria, we don’t want to be poorer, we want to protect our dignity,” Nikolay Banev said.

Strahil Angelov, also from the committee, called on the young doctors, who are protesting for higher pay, to join the protests for the preservation of the lev.