RIGA, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) -- Latvian medics gathered by the parliament house in Riga Old City on Thursday for a fresh rally to demand higher funding for healthcare, local media reported.
The protest, which had gathered around 500 people and was the second this month, was joined not only by healthcare workers but also representatives of other professions.
Angered by the government and lawmakers' refusal to keep the promise to raise the medics' salaries by 20 percent next year, the protesters sent Latvia's central election authority a petition calling for a signature collection campaign to dissolve the parliament.
The Latvian Free Trade Unions Confederation already expressed support for the initiatives on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, several opposition lawmakers at Thursday's parliament session proposed tasking the government with revising Latvia's 2020 budget by Dec. 13 in order to provide the financing necessary for raising the medics' salaries by 20 percent as promised. The ruling majority, however, struck the proposal down.
Medics in Latvia have started a series of protests because only about half of the 120 million euros (132 million U.S. dollars) that had been promised for raising their salaries has been allocated for this purpose in Latvia's 2020 budget.
