Hundreds of artists, professors and ordinary citizens have signed a petition to the prime-minister Boyko Borisov with an appeal to demand the resignation of the minister of culture Vezhdi Rashidov. "The freedom of speech is not an abstraction but a fundamental human right. We have been witnessing acts of outright pressure by minister Vezhdi Rashidov towards a respected journalist from the Bulgarian National Television as well as critics of Rashidov who were fired from the National art gallery in a questionable manner, after their critical statements in a TV show. We consider such actions as highly unacceptable in an European and a democratic country, therefore we cannot stay indifferent…", the petition writes.