More than 10,000 people demonstrated against poverty last Thursday in conjunction with the end of the first 100 days of Prime Minister Simeon Saxe-Coburg's government.

The two largest trade unions - the Confederation of Independent Trade Unions in Bulgaria (CITUB) and Podkrepa - organized the protest under the motto "Say `No' to Poverty, Misery and Unemployment!"

The participants handed Labour and Social Policy Minister Lidia Shuleva a declaration urging immediate national negotiations to discuss a new employment policy, liberalizing the price of labour and increasing incomes, and the implementation of a socially acceptable and transparent privatization process.

"Today we insist on a revision of economic, tax and social policy so as to ensure economic growth and an acceptable social cost of reforms," the declaration said.

Zheliazko Hristov, president of CITUB, gave his thoughts on the new government at the protest. "The work of the government is sluggish and unorganized and sometimes shows lack of experience. There is great discrepancy between the promises made during the election campaign, the announcements made after the elections and the agenda of the Bulgarian society," he said.

During its first 100 days in office, the government increased the minimum monthly wage and child benefits. At the same time, service charges, taxes and fees have also gone up, he said.

The government has pledged to create 250,000 new jobs, but the CITUB said that would not solve the country's unemployment problem. In addition, a 10 per cent personnel cut in the budget-subsidized sector is planned.

"The government resorts all too often to the excuse that they are hindered in their work by the inheritance they got from their predecessors," Hristov said.

Seemingly undisturbed by the trade union leader's words, Saxe-Coburg described the government's first 100 days as a success. In a televised address on Friday, he said that in this comparatively short period of time, a new approach and a new style of government have been shaped.

"Despite the unexpectedly cumbersome inheritance from the previous Cabinet, which can be quantified as a hidden deficit of 640 million leva, the government remained consistent in its work to achieve the main priority of its four-year tenure program - improving the living standards of Bulgarian people," the prime minister said.

Saxe-Coburg spoke about the government's achievements in social and economic spheres, noting measures such as a mechanism to assist poor families, child benefits doubling, individual pensions increasing by six per cent, the minimum monthly wage rising by 18 per cent to 100 leva, and a guarantee fund for micro-credits. He also recalled the changes made in privatization policy, in the area of financial control, and in the energy policy.

However, Saxe-Coburg was very brief on the issue of taxation, a widespread concern. After pointing to the decrease in corporate income tax to a 15 per cent flat rate and personal income tax rates that will also come down substantially, the prime minister turned to the former government again. "The previous government had committed to the introduction of 20 per cent VAT on tourist packages sold abroad, but the current government managed to negotiate with the IMF a seven per cent VAT, three times less than the tax burden the domestic tourist business, a key sector of the Bulgarian economy, would have otherwise had to endure," he said.

And last, but not least, according to Saxe-Coburg, Bulgaria made considerable steps ahead in the process of Euro-integration and NATO membership. He evaluated the foreign policy of the government as successful.