More than 16,000 people took part in anti-government protests in the Bulgarian capital, Sofia, on Saturday, Bulgaria's Sofia News Agency said.
The protest, under the motto "Red Card for the Cabinet", was organized by the chief opposition Bulgarian Socialist Party led by Sergei Stanishev, a former Bulgarian prime minister.
Opposition supporters flooded central Alexander Batenberg Square near the buildings housing the Government and Parliament, demanding the resignation of the country's cabinet headed by Boyko Borisov. The protesters accused the government of failing to address economic and social problems in the country, including rising unemployment and the poor state of the healthcare and education systems.
Borisov replied the protesters on Saturday by saying: "I am sorry I formed a cabinet. I should have let those populists and plunderers to drown completely," the news agency reported.
"If the socialists had formed a second cabinet in 2009, then we would have drowned altogether and become a country like Ireland, Portugal or Greece with their financial problems," he went on. "But after that in the end I would have come in power with 90% of the following vote and there would have been no opposition."
BELGRADE, March 27 (RIA Novosti)
