SOFIA, Nov 10 (Reuters) - Workers at Bulgaria's indebted steelmaker Kremikovtzi and disabled people rallied separately on Monday over unpaid salaries and social assistance, piling pressure on the government ahead of a 2009 election.
About 2,000 workers from Bulgaria's biggest steel mill Kremikovtzi gathered in Sofia to renew demands for government help in finding a buyer to avert a possible closure of the indebted plant.
Closing Kremikovtzi, Bulgaria's industrial success story in the Communist era, is a politically sensitive issue less than a year before a parliamentary election in 2009 as it employs some 6,000 people and provides incomes to another 90,000.
Pressure is increasing on the Socialist-led government to deal with economic problems and raise living standards in the poorest European Union nation in the face of the global financial crisis and months before next year's election.
A Sofia court has declared Kremikovtzi insolvent and two weeks ago the plant started shutting down some of its units due to a lack of imported coal.
Some 200 disabled people, many in wheelchairs, also rallied in central Sofia to seek better access to education, healthcare and public services. They demanded their payments be raised due to double-digit inflation in the country.
Human rights groups and the EU have criticised the Balkan country of 7.6 million for not doing enough since the collapse of communism to improve the conditions in which its about 850,000 disabled people live.
The protesters said if the government failed to fulfil some of their key demands by early December they would ask Brussels to punish Bulgaria by freezing social aid to the country.
Last week, grain producers protested in the capital to demand more subsidies next year due to low grain prices.
The cabinet is torn between keeping the fiscal prudence needed to respond to the credit crunch and the temptation to increase spending to boost its falling popularity ratings, hit by its failure to curb corruption and crime.

(Reporting by Anna Mudeva) Keywords: BULGARIA PROTESTS/ (anna.mudeva@reuters.com; +359 2 9399 733; Reuters Messaging: anna.mudeva.reuters.com@reuters.net)

COPYRIGHT

Copyright Thomson Reuters 2008. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of Reuters News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters.