Protests in Assenovgrad Suspended after Meeting with Deputy Prime Minister

Protests in Assenovgrad are suspended temporarily for two weeks after Deputy Prime Minister Valeri Simeonov on 10 July undertook commitements to the protesters.

Despite that, the protesters remain in readiness for possible new protests. MPs from the region of Assenovgrad also met with protesters. Discussions are currently being moved to Assenovgrad Municipality.

Earlier, the protesting residents of Assenovgrad submitted more than 10,000 signatures to Parliament, insisting on urgent legislative changes, equal rights and obligations for all Bulgarians.

For two weeks, thousands have been protesting after a group of Roma people attacked children and coaches from the rowing club in Asenovgrad. The protesters had a meeting with Deputy Prime Minister for Economic and Demographic Policy Valeri Simeonov, who listened to their demands.

The police and the municipality do not allow the Roma from Stolipinovo district in Plovdiv to protest and support those living in the Roma neighbourhood of Asenovgrad. This was announced earlier today by members of the Disaster Initiative Committee in Plovdiv, chaired by local Roma leader Yasar Asan. According to him, the institutions in Bulgaria must urgently intervene and provide peace in the state, because the worst for all would be the inflaming of a national ethnic scandal. According to Asan, the presence of provokators in protests, such as Dinko from Yambol and Petar Nizamov - Perata, aims at escalating the tension rather than eliminate it. Roma from Stolipinovo are firmly convinced that after two weeks they will again try to protest by obtaining a legal permissions for that.

Ivo Velichkov, Representative of the Protesting residents from Assenovgrad said that specific decisions and commitments were discussed at the meeting with the Deputy Prime Minister.

The first commitemtns is to establish a police station in the Roma neighbourhood in Asenovgrad, he explained. The other commitment is for security of the athletes who were tormented from the Roma assault. In addition, a ban on illegal activities, bathing and any public order violations in the center of the town.

For the time being, we stop the protests. After 15 days we will see what has been done and new protests will be held or not, Yordan Todorov, a representative of the protesters said.

“The law must be equal to everyone, any violation must be punished, and this political marketing in the Roma neighbourhoods should stop,” Bulgaria’s Chief Prosecutor, Sotir Tsatsarov told journalsist earlier on 10^th of July, after asked to comment on the ethnic tensions observed in the recent days.

“What we observe in the past days in Assenovgrad is not an ethnic conflict, but a conflict between lawlessness and people who live by law”, Tsatsarov said. According to him, the Roma population is tolerated for years, because it is needed as an electorate.

"This population becomes important, this population becomes necessary every time elections are to take place - in parliamentary elections and especially in municipal elections”, the chief prosecutor said.

He went on saying that the prosecution will press charges against an MP who had voluntarily given up his immunity - Manol Genov (MP from the Bulgarian Socialist Party). Some of the evidence related to his activity is also related to the buying of votes from the Roma neighborhood – buying of votes of Roma people who, in one way or another have to vote in order to achieve a certain result, which he pursued in this political battle, " Tsatsarov added.

The chief prosecutor is firm that the political marketing in the Roma neighborhoods should stop.

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