Agricultural producers, livestock farmers staged a protest in Sofia, demanding Agriculture Minister's resignation

Agricultural producers and livestock farmers staged a protest on November 23. Branch organisations demand the resignation of the minister of agriculture, Kiril Vatev. The protest march started from the Ministry of Agriculture and will end in front of the Council of Ministers.

Two months ago, the protests of farmers and animal breeders were stopped by the memorandum between the branch organisations and the cabinet, but today people gathered again to protest because, according to them, promises have been broken and their demands have not been heard. They are not asking for benefits, but for the compensation they are legally entitled to.

Further tensions were also raised at yesterday's agriculture committee meeting in parliament, as its chairwoman, Desislava Taneva, explained to the dissatisfied that their demands could not be met. It came to the eviction of some of the farmers from the committee after personal insults directed at Minister Kiril Vatev.

The protesters want Kiril Vatev to resign, but he has already announced that he will not be in Sofia today. Deputy Minister, Alexander Yotsev, came to talk with the dissatisfied people. However, the protesters said that they will not negotiate any more and the only way out of the protest is the immediate implementation of their demands.

According to the protesters, the demands made a month ago to improve the situation in the sector are not being met. They demand that 462 million BGN be provided in next year's budget to compensate for the losses of livestock and vegetable farmers due to the war in Ukraine.

The main problem for farmers is the so-called Ukrainian aid to large farms - 81 farms that have already reached the €250,000 aid ceiling but are demanding more money. Protesters are sounding the alarm about the increase in prices of Bulgarian products, as well as the flooding of the Bulgarian market with low-quality imported products.