Balgarianovinite.com Parents staged a protest outside the Council of Ministers building in Sofia on Wednesday, calling for higher maternity allowances. The protest, held under the slogan “Maternity Is Not Charity”, was organized through social media.
Police were present in the area. Demonstrators carried placards reading, “We Want Care, Not Promises,” “The Future Is in Our Hands. It Is Everyone’s Responsibility!” and “For the Children, For the Families, For Bulgaria.”
Protests were also held in more than ten other cities across the country, including Burgas, Varna, Ruse, Pazardzhik, Pleven, Sliven, Yambol, Shumen, Karlovo, Velingrad, Dobrich and Stara Zagora.
The protesters’ main demand is an increase in the maternity allowances paid during the second year of parental leave. They argue that the current amount is inadequate and does not reflect the actual cost of raising a child. Their other demands include annual indexation of maternity and child allowances, a higher compensation rate for mothers who return to work during the second year of maternity leave, equal access to child allowances for all working parents, sufficient places in public nurseries and kindergartens, higher compensation for children who cannot secure a place in a state-run nursery or kindergarten, and a long-term government policy to encourage higher birth rates and support young families.
“We want the promised 75%,” one of the protest organizers in Sofia, Sevdalina Noykova, said, referring to the compensation paid to mothers who forgo part of their maternity leave and return to work. “Ultimately, we want it to be 100%, but today we saw that they abstained from voting on that proposal. Apparently, mothers are not a priority. The demographic crisis is not a priority. The fact that, according to the United Nations, Bulgaria’s population is projected to shrink by 25% by 2050 is also not a priority for the government,” she said.
“We no longer believe in promises. We want concrete measures,” Noykova added, warning that the protests would continue if the authorities failed to address their demands.
“Maternity allowances have not been increased since 2023, and child allowances have remained unchanged for nine years. Once a child turns two, there is virtually no state support,” another Sofia organizer, Vanya Todorova, said.
She said that representatives of the civic initiative Parents for Decent Maternity had met earlier on Wednesday with Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Galab Donev and Labour and Social Policy Minister Nataliya Efremova at the Finance Ministry to discuss proposals for changes to family support policies in this year’s draft budget. “We have also sent our proposals to all parliamentary groups, but so far only one has expressed clear support. We will also seek a meeting with Sofia Mayor Vassil Terziev to discuss ways of addressing the acute shortage of kindergarten places, which in practice also has an impact on the state budget,” Todorova said.
Speaking at a news briefing, Donev said that the parents’ demands were broadly in line with the increases in spending in this year’s budget. At this stage, the budget draft provides for expanding the number of families eligible for allowances under the Family Allowances Act, he said. This means that the number of families receiving allowances will not decrease. In fact, more families will become eligible, he added. Donev noted that the draft also provides for increasing the tax relief available to individuals with children, including children with disabilities.
Later in the day, the Finance Ministry spoke of the meeting between Donev, Efremova and the protest organizers in Sofia in a press release. According to the officials, some of the proposals would require further refinement because certain benefits are financed through the social insurance system while others are funded through social assistance and therefore follow different rules.
Efremova pointed to the European programme Parents in Employment, under which parents can hire a nanny with state support to facilitate their return to work.
Donev said that studies conducted so far indicate that financial incentives are not the primary factor behind higher birth rates and argued that long-term policies creating favourable conditions for raising children are more important. He added that the draft 2026 budget would preserve tax relief for families with children and raise the income threshold for monthly family allowances. Parents Hold Nationwide Protest for Higher Maternity Allowances 2026 THE NEWS FROM BULGARIA – NEWS AGENCY 2009-2025 2026-07-01 17:49:00 Latest news World news Country news Most important news latest news most important latest of the day Justice Petar Nizamov Feathers Petar Nizamov- Feathers Justice bg iustitia.bg iustitia iusticia usticia investigation Burgas Bulgaria news news of the last hour news of the day news of today Bulgaria news The news from Bulgaria blitz news top news most important most commented latest news Boyko Borisov news weather coronavirus news news weather facebook youtube facebook instagram news today news of the last minutes news today today news news bg news leading news hot news bg news site for news all news news bg news of the last hour latest latest news bg news of today news today news today news of the last hour latest news today news bg news news 24 hours news vesti bg novini news world bird bg bivol bg bivol trud bg novini latest news today novinite bg news hello bulgaria political party coat of arms delyan peevski scandalous Bulgarian National Television Free Europe Television scandal exclusive live tv live right now tv tv online tv program bg live now tv news online tv online live court Burgas court Burgas district court Burgas court Burgas district court Burgas district court Burgas appellate court Burgas prosecutor Burgas prosecutor’s office Burgas district prosecutor’s office Burgas district prosecutor’s office Burgas district prosecutor’s office Burgas district prosecutor’s office Burgas district prosecutor’s office Burgas district prosecutor’s office Prosecutor General Ivan Geshev Prosecutor Geshev Tsatsarov Ministry of Internal Affairs Burgas ODMR Burgas ODPR Burgas police Burgas district police Burgas prosecutor Tsatsarov SGS cases Varna court chairman of the SGS court decisions on civil cases decisions on cases Plovdiv court decision of the court decisions cases Varna court criminal cases district district court decisions work in the court SGS chairman of the SGS judges Sofia court post judges Plovdiv court Plovdiv judges Plovdiv Supreme Court Inspectorate Supreme Court Supreme Judicial Council lawyer lawyer criminal cases lawyer civil cases lawyer marriage cases lawyer administrative criminal law criminal process civil law civil process administrative law constitutional law