site.btaVazrazhdane Leader Calls for Protests to Continue Until Cabinet Resigns

Protests must continue, and there should be no concessions until the government-backing coalition is forced to resign, said Vazrazhdane leader Kostadin Kostadinov at a briefing with journalists on Tuesday.

On Monday evening, tens of thousands of citizens took to the streets in Sofia and major regional centres across Bulgaria to protest the adoption of the 2026 State Budget Bill. Protests were held in Plovdiv, Varna, Burgas, Ruse, Pleven, Stara Zagora, Lovech, Veliko Tarnovo, Dobrich, Blagoevgrad, Sliven, Shumen and Yambol. Protesters in Sofia were heard chanting "Resignation!", apparently calling on the Government to resign. On the protest night, Kostadinov shared on Facebook a stanza from Geo Milev’s poem September.

“For us, this protest shows that a large part of Bulgarian society does not want to be trampled on and kept in a state of servitude. To me, this was the voice of the Bulgarian people,” Kostadinov said. He described the Government as corrupt mafias and compared corruption to the disease cancer.

Kostadinov also commented on the no-confidence vote against the Cabinet of Rossen Zhelyazkov requested by Continue the Change-Democratic Bulgaria earlier on Tuesday. “They should not submit a no-confidence vote covering overall policy. They should reconsider their proposal,” he said. According to Kostadinov, none of this would have happened if Bulgaria had not been forcibly pushed toward joining the eurozone.