THE political stand off is the same, but the atmosphere is totally different. In Belgrade the marchers are inventive, cheerful, defiant and are fighting for democracy, free media and an end to oppression. In Sofia the crowds are smaller and quieter, and many of the participants march with their heads down.
They protest against the grinding poverty of their daily lives. They live, after all, in a city where half the population is estimated to be below the poverty line, where the average monthly wage is the equivalent of 520 and where a pound of stewing beef costs a day's wages.
There were signs yesterday of compromise. The president elect, Mr Petar Stoyanov, who takes office next week, has called the sides together. The ruling Socialist party has offered elections not in May as the protesters demand but at an unspecified date towards the end of the year.
The leader of the opposition Union of Democratic Forces Mr Ivan Kostov, said his side was prepared for talks, but his mistrust of the government was as palpable as that of the demonstrators.
Natalia (22), a student of archaeology at the New Bulgarian University, had the best English and acted as spokeswoman for the group of young people I joined outside a parliament building ringed by riot police.
"Perhaps the government here is not as repressive as Mr Milosevic's in Belgrade, but our economy has hit rock bottom. Inflation since 1990 has been 15,000 per cent. Can you imagine that? People are getting paid their salaries here unlike in Russia, but they might as well not be paid because of the way prices are rising " she said.
As far as the government's offer of elections late in the year was concerned there was unanimous rejection. "This is unacceptable. This situation in which we live must be stopped as soon as possible," I was told.
Inside the parliament building in the shadow of the vast Orthodox Cathedral of St Alexander Nevsky, the national assembly was meeting for the first time since its headquarters was attacked by angry demonstrators last Friday. Opposition parties boycotted the session.
Crowd barriers and riot police completely surrounded the parliamentary precinct. Side streets leading to government offices in other parts of central Sofia were similarly cordoned off.
The police were backed up by a number of fire engines, conveying the message that the protesters would be hosed down if things got out of control.
The marchers caused no trouble. They blew their whistles, chanted "Red Scum" as they walked slowly and deliberately through the city centre and obeyed their leaders' calls to behave themselves and follow the example of the Serbs in Belgrade.
Earlier, every taxi in town joined a motorised protest, honking their horns, flying the flags of the UDF coalition and causing a massive traffic jam which was just beginning to ease when the marches arrived to block the streets again.
The outward appearance is that of an eastern capital rapidly becoming westernised. American fast food joints abound. Bulgarians are free to indulge in Dunkin' Donuts, Kentucky Fried Chicken or Cindy's Cinnamon Rolls. At lunchtime, the pizza parlours and the Chinese restaurants (there is just one in Belgrade) were doing a steady, if less than roaring, trade.
The telephones work in Sofia while they don't in Belgrade, and the media are far freer than in Serbia, even to the extent that the BBC World Service is available not only on expensive short wave receivers but in English and Bulgarian on the local FM wavelengths.
The Bulgarian struggle is far more basic than its Serbian counterpart. This is a fight to make ends meet, to control an inflation rate which topped 300 per cent in 1996. There is a growing demand for market economic reforms.
Here 90 per cent of industry is still state owned while doctors earn far less than the hard currency touts who swarm around Sofia's central station. But the route to the market is likely to make things a lot worse before they get better. In Russia in 1992, the first year of economic reforms, inflation hit 2,500 per cent.
