| schema:articleBody
| - Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov on Friday attempted to end weeks of protests against corruption by proposing a new constitution, an idea rejected immediately by demonstrators and members of his own governing coalition. The mostly young protesters, who have taken to the streets over the last five weeks, demanding the resignation of Borisov's conservative cabinet and of chief prosecutor Ivan Geshev, accusing them of being beholden to behind-the-scenes oligarchs. "The political parties of the system can no longer stifle the great desire for change in Bulgaria," Borisov said in an appeal to the nation broadcast on radio and television. "I respect the revolt of the young people and everything is in their hands." Changing the constitution would make it possible, according to Borisov, to limit in particular the power of the prosecutors, who opponents see as prejudiced and in the exclusive service of part of the oligarchy. Borisov, who has held power for almost 10 years, currently leads a coalition of conservatives and nationalists who immediately rejected the prime minister's proposal. They say they are in favour of simple constitutional amendments to make voting compulsory, to restore military service and to ban same-sex unions. The opposition Socialists and populist Volya parties also rejected the idea, meaning that Borisov would have no prospect of attaining the two-thirds majority in parliament necessary to start rewriting the constitution. The main organisers of the demonstrations said in a statement to the media on Friday that they also rejected the idea of a new constitution and that they intend to continue taking to the streets until Borisov resigns. The protests continued on Friday with demonstrators blocking two motorways for several hours, as well as blocking the main border crossing points with Serbia and Romania. Bulgaria has had four different constitutions in its history so far. The first Tarnovo Constitution came into being in 1879 at the end of Ottoman rule. It was changed in 1947 and 1971 under the communist regime and, most recently, for the transition to a market economy in 1991. Socialist-backed President Rumen Radev, who has often clashed with Borisov, said in a televised statement Friday that "the loss of confidence in the government is irreversible". "Any debate on the constitution will only be held after early elections," Radev said. Parliamentary elections are currently due to be held in spring 2021. In theory the process of rewriting the constitution would involve dissolving parliament and holding elections held to create a "constituent" assembly. That assembly would then be responsible for drafting and adopting the new constitution, a process that could take at least a year. Once a new constitution were adopted, the constituent assembly would in turn be dissolved and legislative elections held. vs/jsk.pvh
|
![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)
![[cxml]](/fct/images/cxml_doc.png)
![[csv]](/fct/images/csv_doc.png)
![[text]](/fct/images/ntriples_doc.png)
![[turtle]](/fct/images/n3turtle_doc.png)
![[ld+json]](/fct/images/jsonld_doc.png)
![[rdf+json]](/fct/images/json_doc.png)
![[rdf+xml]](/fct/images/xml_doc.png)
![[atom+xml]](/fct/images/atom_doc.png)
![[html]](/fct/images/html_doc.png)