Bulgarian president urges PM to quit

Bloomberg

Bulgaria’s president renewed his call for the resignation of Prime Minister Boyko Borissov as protesters clashed with police after thousands demonstrated outside parliament.
Opposition-backed President Rumen Radev, who has accused Borissov and Prosecutor General Ivan Geshev of harboring links to organised crime that they deny, said the premier’s departure was “unavoidable” after two months of anti-corruption demonstrations against the government.
Borissov, who has resigned as prime minister before in 2013 and 2017, is again fighting for his political life. He has proposed rewriting the constitution to increase judicial independence and is seeking lawmakers’ support to start the process.
“There’s no other way out of the blockade of the state except for a peaceful, normal political act of resignation when there’s no trust,” Radev told lawmakers. “These resignations are
unavoidable.”
Protesters threw rocks and eggs as they tried to break through a security cordon at
the parliament building in
central Sofia.
Police used pepper spray to disperse the crowd after more than 20 officers were injured from an unknown gas substance, Ivan Georgiev, a director at the security police department in Sofia, told reporters. At least eight people were detained, and at least 16, including three journalists, were taken to hospital, the state-owned BNT reported.
Borissov has been harried by graft scandals, probes against former and current ministers and leaked wiretaps alleging his involvement in abuse of power that he denies.