Reuters
[Source: Reuters]
Bulgaria’s government resigned on Thursday after less than a year in power, following weeks of street protests over its economic policies and its perceived failure to tackle corruption.
Prime Minister Rosen Zhelyazkov announced the decision in a televised address just minutes before parliament was due to vote on a no-confidence motion. The resignation comes less than three weeks before Bulgaria is due to join the euro zone on January 1.
“Our coalition met, we discussed the current situation, the challenges we face and the decisions we must responsibly make,” Zhelyazkov said, confirming that the government would step down.
Thousands of Bulgarians rallied on Wednesday evening in Sofia and dozens of other towns and cities, the latest in a wave of demonstrations highlighting public anger over endemic graft and successive governments’ inability to root it out.
“We realise that the protest was against arrogance and conceit, this is not a social protest, but a protest for values,” Zhelyazkov said. “It was not a meeting of political opponents over policies but over attitudes, and therefore it unites different components of Bulgarian society.”
Many of the protesters are younger, urban professionals who strongly support Bulgaria’s accession to the euro zone and want it to become more part of the European mainstream.
Bulgaria remains the poorest and most corrupt member state in the European Union, which it joined in 2007.
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