Bulgaria’s middle-class rebels press for a ‘normal’ EU state

Bulgaria has been transformed in the past 23 years from a financially bankrupt one-party state into an open, stable market economy anchored in the European Union and Nato.

But six years after joining the EU, it remains the poorest and one of the most graft-prone countries in the 28-member club, with average monthly salaries stuck at around €400.

Protestors, mostly young, well-educated and well-travelled, are deeply disillusioned with a political class they view as inept, opaque, corrupt and incapable of satisfying their core demand to live in a 'normal European country'.