Bulgarian protests continue peacefully after stormy night

By bne IntelliNews September 3, 2020

Thousands people gathered for the 57th time in Bulgaria to demand the resignations of the government and chief prosecutor Ivan Geshev, but unlike the previous night the protest remained peaceful.

A day earlier, dozens of protesters and policemen were wounded and more than 120 people were arrested after alleged provocateurs threw smoke bombs, fireworks and various other missiles at the police, while the gendarmerie used lots of pepper spray and tear gas and reportedly beat people who were not resisting arrest.

On September 3, there were smaller numbers of people than the previous day and they marched peacefully in the evening.

After early in the morning the police removed the protest camps in downtown Sofia, in the evening two tents were placed at the Eagle’s Bridge, the most important crossroad in the capital, which had been blocked for more than a month.

The two tents will not block the movement of people and vehicles and were placed as a symbol of the protesters’ resistance, they said as quoted by Dnevnik news outlet.

Meanwhile, President Rumen Radev addressed the nation in the evening, once again speaking out in support of the protests and accusing the authorities of being behind the provocations from the previous day.

“The authorities directed the provocations that have sparked the mass and disproportionate police violence against protesters and journalists. The victims are dozens – both among the citizens and the law enforcement,” Radev said.

The Bulgarian Helsinki Committee has demanded an independent investigation into the actions of the police at the September 2 protest. 

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