Bulgaria's Socialist-led Government, pressured by a long-running teachers' strike, survived a no-confidence vote on October 23, fending off opposition claims that it had failed to fund schools adequately, International Herald Tribune (IHT) said.

The motion, tabled by the parliamentary opposition, was rejected in the 240-member legislature along party lines by 160-61, with one abstention. The remaining 18 lawmakers were absent.

It was the third confidence vote the center-left government had survived since taking office in 2005, and the second since the country joined the European Union on Jan. 1, IHT said.

A teachers' strike has left most schools in Bulgaria shut for more than a month. Some 120,000 teachers work in Bulgaria's state schools and nurseries — roughly a quarter of all state employees — at an average monthly wage of 440 leva (€225; US$317), IHT quoted government figures.

During debate, opposition lawmakers accused the government of failing to live up to its promises to increase funding for education and said that excess centralization stifled the schools' independence and development.

Democrats for a Strong Bulgaria leader Ivan Kostov said the cabinet had not delivered on a promise that education salaries would exceed the average for the public sector, despite the country's budget surplus.

Stanishev said there had been "internal contradictions and tensions" in the teachers' status but said that most of the problems were inherited from previous governments.
He warned that handing out the budget surplus would undermine hard-won successes, increase inflation and bring renewed pressure on the lev.

"We will not allow this to happen under any circumstances because financial stability, guaranteeing people's real income and savings, is the foremost condition for the success of the country," IHT quoted Stanishev as saying.

Government was formed in 2005.

National elections are due by 2009.