Bulgaria's winter of discontent

In January Bulgaria was gripped by its worst riots since 1997 when the mass protests brought down the Socialist government.

Bulgaria is not known for having a tradition of protest unlike its neighbours Albania, Romania and the states of the former Yugoslavia. But in January that all changed.

Was it that Bulgarians had enough of the government's blame-everything-on-the-global-crisis attitude throughout 2008?

Maybe being infamous for being the most corrupt country in the European Union got too much - last year the EU penalised Bulgaria for being too slow in breaking down corruption and organised crime by suspending hundreds of millions of euros in aid.

Or perhaps people were gripped with panic after Russia turned off the gas to eastern Europe in the dead of winter. More than 160,000 households lost heating and hot water as temperatures dropped below -10°C during Moscow's dispute with Ukraine capital Kiev. Around 100 schools closed meaning that instead of being at their cold schools children stayed at their freezing homes instead.

Photo credit: Nadia Donkova

On 14 January, thousands gathered in front of parliament to express their discontent with their political leaders demanding the immediate resignation of the socialist-led government.

Protesters demanded the government steps down for its inability to deal with widespread crime and corruption and its failure to solve the countries economic problems. People chanted "Resign" and "Mafia" and held posters that read "We've had enough."

An official statement from the organisers said "the protests in Bulgaria were not caused by the effects of the economic recession, but have been mostly related to certain, long-lasting problems in national politics, such as political incompetence and corruption." "This was a unique protest which united the people in their wish for a change and their wish to live in a normal European country," the organisers said.

After an hour of peaceful protest violence broke out. Dozens of demonstrators wearing scarves began throwing bottles, rocks and snowballs at the parliament and clashed with police. What had been organised as an anti-government demonstration turned into a riot. Shortly after, the municipality ordered the end of the protest because of a bomb warning.

Police intervened using force to disperse the crowd and push the demonstrators out of the parliament square. There were reports of police beatings. Later on videos showed policemen using teargas and batons and people covered with blood.

An estimated 150 people were arrested. Police said that some of those arrested were carrying hand-made grenades, and supposedly were directly involved in the provocation of the riots. The police press office has not been available for further comment.

"The police didn't react properly. They let things get out of hand," said Vladislav Chakarov, 31, who participated in the demonstrations. "Maybe they did it even on purpose, they waited and interfered only when things were out of control by using force on anyone at the protest. Their attitude was arrogant and obnoxious. They were cursing and threatening all of us."

"The protests brought together people with diverse social status... students, farmers, parents and environmentalists, who openly declared their own position against the ruling political class," said Petya Stavreva, a member of the European Parliament with the European People's Party and European Democrats.

Photo credit: Nadia Donkova

The following two days of protests ended peacefully in front of the parliament building. However, the police set up checkpoints to search for weapons and check the identity documents of every participant in the protest.

"The demonstrations proved that the society is becoming politically aware and active. People want a different direction - they are ready for a change of the government and the political system as a whole," said Stavreva.

But for Mr Chakarov the truth lies elsewhere. "The real winners unfortunately are the ruling political parties as they successfully discouraged people to get out in the streets again," he said.

Disappointment and anger were evident everywhere during the protests - not just against the corruption, nepotism and the lack of control showed by the ruling coalition but the toothlessness of the opposition.

"We are demanding answers about common community matters, answers that have been demonstratively denied by the politicians. The political arrogance of decision makers has lost any sense of limits already," Mr Chakarov said.