Bulgaria’s Prime Minister Boyko Borissov made a U-turn on July 16, giving up on the demands he made the previous day for three key ministers to resign, and saying he will not resign either amid the escalating political crisis.

Tens of thousands of Bulgarians have flooded onto the streets of the capital Sofia and several other towns for eight days in a row, demanding the resignations of Borissov and chief prosecutor Ivan Geshev.

On July 15, Borissov demanded the resignations of Finance Minister Vladislav Goranov, Economy Minister Emil Karanikolov and Interior Minister Mladen Marinov over their alleged connections to the ethnic-Turk Movement for Rights and Freedoms (DPS).

The protesters accuse Borissov and Geshev of being closely linked to DPS chairman of honour Ahmed Dogan and controversial businessman and DPS MP Delyan Peevski and serving their personal interests. The prime minister appears to hope he will dampen their anger by severing links with ministers close to the DPS.

Then a day later, as the protesters seemed in no way willing to calm down due to the expected resignations, Borissov said nobody will be replaced for the moment and the government will serve its full mandate. Moreover, he accused President Rumen Radev – his fiercest opponent and a staunch supporter of the protests – of connections to Peevski. As expected, Radev responded, denying Borissov’s accusations.

Borissov once again insisted that the world is facing the most severe economic crisis and that, should he resign, Bulgaria will be “ruined” by the opposition.

Geshev also said on July 16 he will not resign despite the protests, and the prosecution published letters from other prosecutors supporting his work on its website. Many saw in this an organised campaign and not honest support.

Meanwhile, the protests, which seem far from ending, got support from the European Greens, which published a statement on July 16 supporting the protesters and particularly Democratic Bulgaria, a non-parliamentary opposition party that includes the Green Movement.

A few days before the protests, Hristo Ivanov, one of the leaders of Democratic Bulgaria, attempted to reach the beach near Dogan’s summer villa. He released a video showing how he was pushed into the water by guards working for the state security services, who were restricting access to the public beach to keep people away from Dogan’s villa.

“The EU must act to ensure that the justice systems in EU member states are independent of political influence. When clear breaches to the rule of law can be established, the EU should not hesitate to trigger infringement procedures,” the European Greens wrote in the statement.

While Borissov and Geshev attempt to blame Radev and fugitive gambling mogul Vassil Bozhkov for staging the protests, a poll carried out by Gallup Bulgaria showed that majority of Bulgarians — 58% of those polled — want the government to resign.

The poll also showed that most likely the protests have gathered around 300,000 people, based on the share of respondents who said they have already attended at least one rally. A significant part of those attending protests are young people.

Meanwhile, a poll on the website of Dnevnik news outlet shows that 62% of people believe the protests should last until the government and Geshev resign.