Protesting tobacco growers clashed with police yesterday, according to the Bulgarian daily newspaper Sofia Morning News.

The farmers attempted to blockade the road to the Danube Bridge connecting Bulgaria and Romania near Ruse, for which they did not have a permit. This action let to a fight with the policemen guarding their protest rally as well as the arrival of 70 gendarmerie officers in support of the police.
The tobacco producers held a protest rally near Ruse, demanding that due state subsidies for tobacco that has already been produced and sold should be apportioned evenly between the producers, according to Fikret Bekir from the Bulgarian National Tobbaco Producers’Association.
Bulgaria’s Agriculture Minister, Miroslav Naydenov, who spoke at a news conference in Sofia, the protests are caused by contradictions among different groups of producers growing different sorts of tobacco. He announced the new state subsidies for the various sorts of tobacco, saying that the government had approved them in accordance with the recommendations of the Parliamentary Committee on Agriculture.
The police arrested several of the protesters but it is still unclear whether any charges will be raised against them. (pi)