Bulgarian Tobacco Growers Block Highway, Demand Subsidies

Source from:  EARTHtimes.org 12/22/2009

Thousands of tobacco farmers protesting subsidy cuts briefly blocked a crucial highway in Bulgaria on Monday, local media said. Some 3,000 protesters parked tractors to block traffic going both ways on the Trakiya highway linking Sofia with Istanbul.

The protest, near Plovdiv, some 130 kilometres southeast of the capital, lasted 15 minutes. The farmers are demanding the restoration of their subsidies, halved in the 2010 budget, to the full 160 million leva (117 million dollars), which they had received in past years. Enditem