Police gathered in several cities throughout Bulgaria for a silent protest on December 13.

In Sofia, about 2000 police officers gathered before the announced starting time of 11am in the park on the square in front of the Interior Ministry building, Bulgarian daily Dnevnik said. By law, serving police officers cannot stage any kind of protests, hence few of the assembled police officers wore uniforms.

Police are protesting over poor working conditions, low salaries and cancelled Christmas bonuses. The protests had been more or less trumpeted in advance by Tsvetan Tsvetanov, chairperson of the Citizens for the European Development of Bulgaria (abbreviated as GERB in Bulgarian), who said in an interview on bTV on December 9 that there was discontent among police and that a protest would not surprise him.

More than 350 police officers gathered in front of the regional police building in Dobrich. "We won't starve on a salary of 700 to 800 leva," Dnevnik quoted a protester in Dobrich as saying, "but at the same time, other police services are paid salaries several times higher. The court police receive 2000 leva a month whereas we are at the front line of the fight against crime."

In Rousse, more than 250 police officers were reported to have gathered for a half-hour protest. One of the demonstrating police officers in that protest told BNR that the average salary within the ministry's system was not 960 leva, as the ministry reported earlier, but 700 leva. "I have been working as police officers for 10 years and I get 630 leva a months," he said, describing the ministry's official data as "a lie".

In Vidin, about 60 police oficers gathered. In response to questions about the reasons for the protest one unnamed participant told Dnevnik that police were also entitled to normal working conditions. The participant compared working conditions for his peers in Serbia and Romania, where the job is reputedly less stressful and more prestigious. After the protest in Vidin ended, a local police union spokesperson said Vidin police would join protests in Sofia.

In Bourgas more than 500 police officers gathered in front of the regional police building. Unlike in other protests throughout the country, where no senior police took part in the protests, in Bourgas demonstrators were joined by heads of the regional police, the gendarmerie and firefighters as well as heads of all the local police in the region, border police and traffic police, Dnevnik said.
Police from Bourgas who were not on duty on December 3, would reportedly join the protests in Sofia.

Dnevnik quoted a nameless protester in Sofia as saying: "We hope this will have an effect, otherwise we'll have to go out and smoke a few more times."

Protesters wanted to know whether they should try to find other work, leader of the national police union Emil Pashev was quoted by Dnevnik as saying. If they were happy, they wouldn't be here, Pashev said. While Pashev spoke to reporters, a number of protesters yelled "who is he?", Dnevnik said.

The general commissioner of the Interior Ministry, Pavlin Dimitrov, met protesters in Sofia in front of the Interior Ministry. He said the police grievances could not be solved immediately, but that dialogue was the way ahead. "I am here to show my respect for your work," Dimitrov told protestors who welcomed him with applause.

Interior Minister Mihail Mikov said that the organisation of the police protest was illegal and not a proper way to conduct negotiations. According to Mikov, police unions should negotiate with the ministry, Mikov said in an interview on Darik Radio.

Protesters were boosted by the high profile support of Sofia mayor Boiko Borissov, one of the country's leading opposition politicians, who stated his support for the police officers' grievances.  Borissov, who became extremely popular after having spent four years as Interior Ministry's chief secretary, told a BNR correspondent in Varna that the Government should find more money for police officers from the record high budget surplus.

One of the reasons for the police discontent was the announcement that Christmas bonuses would be cancelled for almost the entire state administration as a result of the financial crisis hanging over Bulgaria's budget. Now, in the wake of the police protest, Deputy Interior Minister Sonya Yankoulova told Bulgarian National Television that Christmas bonuses might be paid out after all.

"The ministry is doing all it can to find money for the bonuses, but whether this will happen I can't tell you for sure," she told BNT on December 11 2008. Yankoulova had claimed that Christmas bonuses would cost 60 million leva, money that the ministry did not have. She also said that none of the ministry's employees would be punished for taking part in the December 13 protest. "Everyone has the right to express opinions, especially when it comes to such an important issue as salaries," she said.