8,100 households in 105 settlements across the country are still without electricity because of the heavy snow in recent days, caretaker Minister of Energy Vladimir Malinov said in the town of Gabrovo. ''We want the power supply to be restored to all settlements in Bulgaria by Sunday", Minister Malinov said at a meeting with local residents who took to the streets to protest against the power outages.

Vladimir Malinov assured that the promised financial aid of 2 million BGN (EUR 1 million) for the affected households will be voted on tomorrow by the Council of Ministers. He added that households will also be able to claim penalties owed to them by the electricity distribution companies.

“The word disgrace is quite mild for what is happening. This indicates that the power grid is in a very poor state”, Gabrovo Mayor Tanya Hristova said after a meeting with Bulgaria’s Minister of Energy.

Settlements in the municipalities of Gabrovo, Elena, Lovech and Troyan are still affected by power outages.

• The government allocates two million for more than 20,000 households left without electricity

• Dozens of villages in Bulgaria still without electricity and communication network