As the so-called police protests enter their third day, social tension has been mounting. And once again, Bulgaria will, apparently, never be the same. On Tuesday, with complete contempt for laws or regulations, professional ethics or any respect for society itself, Interior Ministry staff blocked off key road junctions in Sofia – a city of two million – and in other major cities of the country. Thus they paralyzed traffic, fraying the nerves of drivers and pedestrians, flexing their muscles, demonstrating a flagrant disregard for the community as such. But, most importantly, bringing the government down to its knees.

And the same thing happened all over again on Wednesday even though, in her alarm, Interior Minister Rumyana Bachvarova shifted her ground, offering a series of compromises. But this time the police outrages were joined by border police staff who blocked off highways to neighbouring Greece and Turkey, and once again without any prior warning. But that is not the end of it – with a fervor better suited to Bolshevik times, the ministry trade union organizations threatened a nationwide protest on 8 November.

What was it that enraged law enforcers to such a degree, that they are now themselves breaking the law with such vicious contempt? It was in fact Finance Minister Vladislav Goranov and Interior Minister Rumyana Bachvarova that stirred up the hornets’ nest. On Monday they stated they intended to lay down certain measures in the 2016 national draft budget – a cut down of the compensations due on retirement from 20 to 10 monthly salaries, of paid annual leave down from 30 to 20 days and other privileges.

Perhaps nobody was expecting such a stormy reaction by the people affected. Prime Minister Boyko Borissov, on his part, demonstrated his support for the two cabinet ministers in their consternation. He snapped – the protests are illegal and the policemen who blocked off road junctions on Monday shall be punished. These same policemen responded by blocking off junctions in cities, again, but this time they even obstructed international highways. And no one has been punished to date. So, there is one question that, logically, springs to mind – who is dictating the situation? The state or the policemen? Is it really an overstatement to say – as some observers have been saying – that the Interior Ministry with its structures and staff, has in our day developed into a citadel outside the law, into the Bulgarian Frankenstein of the transition from totalitarianism to European democracy?

But literary flourishes aside, let us now take a look at some facts and figures. Within the Interior Ministry system, the staff number 60,000 – and this not forgetting that Bulgaria has a population of under 7 million. According to calculations, this means that in terms of per capita policemen, Bulgaria is close to top of the list of countries, not just in Europe but in the world. But why is it then that the country is also close to top of the list in terms of rampant crime and corruption? And the answer comes logically – because the people from the interior ministry are unable or unwilling to do their jobs. Some analysts even go as far as saying that besides on the state’s payroll, some of these people are also in the pocket of certain “sectoral” mobsters, trafficking in drugs, prostitutes, migrants or smuggling excise commodities. It is interesting to note what employers’ organizations in Bulgaria had to say in a declaration against the police protests – that with this ”efficiency” of the Interior Ministry, manufacturers and citizens are forced to “support one more Interior Ministry, in terms of numbers – the private security sector.”

On the other hand, hundreds of millions of euro are poured into the interior ministry coffers, 95 percent of which is spent on salaries and other financial and material perks for the staff. Why so? Let’s be honest. In the course of the 25 years since the fall of the Berlin wall, reforms at the Interior and the Defence Ministry have remained on paper only. In these ministries all privileges remain intact, privileges handed out during the totalitarian regime, so that the two repressive institutions may service and guarantee the comfort of the then ruling Bulgarian Communist Party. The caste then fashioned remains viable today and is in readiness to break the laws, even to undermine statehood and democracy if their financial and material privileges are in any way jeopardized. One hope remains – that at long last the state institutions will get the better of their own fear and will put in place genuine reforms. Ministers Goranov and Bachvarova made a timid attempt at this, applying financial leverage. For the time being, to no avail.

English Milena Daynova