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Bulgaria government to resign, PM Boiko Borisov says Bulgaria government to resign, PM Boiko Borisov says
(about 2 hours later)
Bulgaria's government has announced it is resigning after nationwide protests against high electricity prices and austerity, Prime Minister Boiko Borisov has said. Bulgaria's government has announced it is resigning after nationwide protests against high electricity prices and austerity measures, Prime Minister Boiko Borisov has said.
"I will not participate in a government under which police are beating people," Mr Borisov told parliament. The PM said he had decided to go after protesters against rising electricity prices clashed with police in Sofia.
Tens of thousands have protested across Bulgaria, the EU's poorest country, against high electricity bills. Twenty-five people were taken to hospital.
The PM tried to calm the protests on Tuesday by promising to slash prices. "I will not participate in a government under which police are beating people," Mr Borisov said.
"Every drop of blood is a shame for us,"
Low living standards
Tens of thousands have taken to the streets across Bulgaria, the EU's poorest country, against high electricity bills.
The PM tried to calm the protests on Tuesday by promising to slash prices and by sacking his finance minister.
He also pledged to punish foreign-owned power companies that he said charged too much.He also pledged to punish foreign-owned power companies that he said charged too much.
Twenty-five people were taken to hospital after protesters clashed with police late on Tuesday. But correspondents say that many Bulgarians remain deeply unhappy over high energy costs, power monopolies, low living standards and corruption.
Correspondents say that many Bulgarians are deeply unhappy over high energy costs, power monopolies, low living standards and corruption.
It was not immediately clear whether or not a parliamentary election scheduled for July would now be brought forward.It was not immediately clear whether or not a parliamentary election scheduled for July would now be brought forward.
"Our power was handed to us by the people, today we are handing it back to them," Mr Borisov said.
"I cannot stand looking at a bloody Eagles' Bridge," he added, referring to a busy intersection in the centre of Sofia that became the centre point of clashes between police and protesters on Tuesday.
"We did our best over these four years."
The series of mass protests in Sofia and all other major Bulgarian cities was initially triggered by high electricity bills, although many protesters also demanded the resignation of the centre-right GERB party government and the re-nationalisation of power distributors.
The government lost support after it abandoned plans in March 2012 to build a new nuclear power station at Belene, close to the Romanian border.
A controversial referendum last month on whether to build a second nuclear power plant was invalidated by a low turnout, although more than 60% of those who voted backed the idea.
Correspondents say that while budget cuts have felled a series of governments around Europe, Mr Borisov - a former bodyguard to Bulgaria's Soviet-era dictator Todor Zhivkov - had until recent weeks seemed relatively immune.
That was in part because he froze salaries and pensions rather than cutting them.
Bulgarians on average earn a relatively meagre 800 levs ($550;£356) a month.