The Bulgarian government is determined to keep the austerity measures included in the draft state budget for 2012 and not bow to social pressure, stated Minister of Finance Simeon Djankov Sunday.

"What we"re doing is what real reformists do in times of crisis," said Djankov on a visit to the Black Sea town of Sozopol.

The statement of the Finance Minister comes in a moment of intense social turmoul in Bulgaria, as the two major trade unions - the Podkrepa Labor Confederation and the Confederation of Independent Syndicates in Bulgaria (KNSB) - are staging November 30, Wednesday, a mass rally against the government"s intention to raise the retirement age by one year as of January 1, 2012.

At the same time, Bulgaria"s railway transport is paralyzed, with the railway workers being on a general strike for four days now over mass layoffs intended by the management of the highly troubled Bulgarian State Railways BDZ.

On Sunday, six NGOs of agricultural producers vowed to start blockading major roads across Buglaria with demands for higher subsidies for 2012.

Top all of these issues, the police syndicate decided Saturday that it would stage a mass protest, too, even though its date is unknown yet, over the government plans to raise the minimum retirement requirement about a number of years served for police officers.

"We"re thinking strategically. The effects of the reforms we"re making will be felt around 2015-17," declared unyieldingly the Bulgarian Minister of Finance on Sunday.

He argued that since Bulgaria"s National Social Security Institute has been chronically in deficit since 1999, the government has nothing else to do than impose austerity.

"We better do that now, and not like other European countries to impose even more severe measures later, when it has already become too late," said Djankov.

Bulgaria"s trade unions have been irked by the intention of the cabinet to raise the retirement age next year, not after 2021 as initially planned, and by its statement that it has no money to update retirement pensions next year.

Trade unions have officially abandoned dialogue with the government and employers as an act of protest and have warned that a general strike in the country might be imminent.