Fathers staged a protest in Sofia to demand amendments to the Family Code and the introduction of shared parenting.

• Fathers call for the introduction of shared parenting

“It is a big problem that even if you have child contact arrangements, you cannot in fact see your child if the mother refuses,” said Stefan Stefanov who has not seen his son in 8 years. In his words, when the parents separate they are usually forced to dispute custody and the court gets to decide which parent the child should stay with. “However, the modern practice is shared parenting – for the two parents to remain in the life of the child,” he said.  

At the moment, after divorce, the fathers usually only see their children on weekends. They described parental alienation as a major problem.