Bulgarian miners march to protect coal industry

A woman holds a placard reading "Timmermans, how will we live without electricity?" as miners and workers at Bulgaria's largest coal-fired power plant Maritsa East 2 take part in a demonstration urging the government to avoid an early closure of coal-fired energy production in the Balkan country under the EU Green Deal, Sofia, Bulgaria, October 13, 2021. REUTERS/Spasiyana Sergieva

SOFIA (Reuters) - About 1,000 miners and workers from Bulgaria's largest coal-fired power plant marched in Sofia on Wednesday to protect their jobs and to urge the government to support their industry.

Demonstrators called on the Cabinet to guarantee it would not rush to shut mines and power plants at the Maritsa East lignite coal complex in southern Bulgaria, despite a European Union push to decarbonise the bloc's economy by 2050.