The protests and counter-protests over the intention to construct a second ski lift in Bansko in Mount Pirin, Southern Bulgaria, not only continued last night, but spread and grew more and more political.

One week after the government endorsed amendments to the management plan of Pirin National Park, protests were organized in more than ten towns and cities across the country in defence of Pirin Mountain. The protesting environmentalists say the changes will open the door to construction over 48 percent of the park’s territory. Environment Minister Neno Dimov, on his part, says that only 2.6 percent of the territory will be built upon, and only sports infrastructure facilities.

The spread of the protests has carried their message more persuasively nationwide, while the demands have been growing more and more political. The protestors are demanding “lawfulness in Bulgaria”, while five parties not represented in parliament demanded the resignation of the environment minister. In a joint statement, the Democrats for a Strong Bulgaria, Yes, Bulgaria, the Greens, the BZNS (Bulgarian Agrarian People’s Union) and DEOS (Movement for European Unity and Solidarity) described the changes to the management plan of Pirin National Park as political extortion and warned that the modifications will not lead to the promised quick construction of a second ski lift in Bansko, but they will escalate, and quickly, from plans for new ski runs and other facilities, to logging and erosion of hundreds of hectares of centuries-old forests and to a new construction boom in Bansko, but also over the whole of Mount Pirin.

Deputy Prime Minister Valeri Simeonov accused the protestors of seeking to derive electoral dividends. The Democrats for a Strong Bulgaria, Yes, Bulgaria, the Greens, BZNS and DEOS carry negligible electoral weight, yet the cause that is now uniting them has widespread public support and is genuinely capable of enhancing their popularity.

Yet the thesis of the government that there must be a balance between environmental protection and economic development also has a lot of supporters. So, simultaneously with the protests against the government’s intentions to build a second ski lift in Bansko, counter-demonstrations took place, blocking off traffic along the international road near Similti for about an hour and a half. They carried posters, one of which, for example, read “Green parasites - out of Bulgaria”. The confrontation is so fierce that dozens of patrols had to guard the protests to prevent any incidents.

The standoff between protestors and counter-protestors took to the pages of the newspapers. Tensions escalated to, until not so long ago, unimaginable heights, as seen in today’s Trud newspaper, where its publisher and journalist Petyo Bluskov writes that this week’s protest is not against the development of winter tourism, or for protecting the environment in Pirin, but against Bulgaria. And warns that for five years a “rabble of subversives” have been sabotaging every national initiative.

It is plain to see that with such a ferocious confrontation, the government’s idea of a “balance between environmental protection and economic development” is absolutely out of the question. What remains to be seen is how long this can go on.

English version: Milena Daynova