Sun, Jul 05 2009
Cyclists met in Rousse for a protest on August 11 2008 against the tolls that motor vehicles have to pay for crossing the Romanian-Bulgarian border, an amount of 35 leva a car.
The use of bicycles was a direct aim at the validity of the tax, as bicycles are the only type of vehicle that do not pay a toll on the bridge that crosses the Danube River, connecting the Bulgarian Rousse and the Romanian Giurgiu, private broadcaster bTV reported.
The participants in the demonstration wore T-shirts saying "No to the tolls!" They crossed the Danube Bridge, rode to the Romanian town of Giurgiu and returned back to Bulgaria.
Local people said that the taxes needed to be done away with, as they very often travelled to Romania's nearest airport, and to Bucharest or Giurgiu, while Romanians often came to the Danubian city of Rousse.
Ataka and Order Law and Justice parties stage symbolic blockades at Bulgaria’s borders with Turkey on eve of July 5 2009 parliamentary election, while reports record influx of would-be voters and, it is claimed, flights are being chartered from Turkey.
In a blow against a problem that has been plaguing Bulgaria’s elections, State Agency for National Security and Interior Ministry say several people in a ‘major criminal organisation’ have been arrested for vote-buying, on the eve of the July 5 vote.
Barometer Info survey on July 3 2009, just ahead of the eve of Bulgaria’s national parliamentary elections, gives GERB 27.05 per cent and Sergei Stanishev’s Coalition for Bulgaria 19.09 per cent.
The exact number of people sacked from duty out of the 600 who refused to go to work on Monday is undisclosed, although reports claim that as of June 3 at least four people were told they were surplus to requirements.
Open your mind and face the unknown: the 2009 general elections in Bulgaria.