Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borissov won Parliament's backing on Wednesday to launch his controversial constitution rewrite project, as clashes between his opponents and the police left more than 45 injured in Sofia.
It was the first day of violence since the daily anti-corruption protests began in July.
Protesters of all tendencies demand the resignation of the government and of the general prosecutor Ivan Guechev, whom they accuse of
"being linked to the oligarchy".
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127 deputies out of 240 gave their agreement on Wednesday to the Conservative head of government to launch debates over several months on this subject, according to Boïko Borissov's Gerb party, despite the anger of anti-corruption activists, who see it only as a delaying maneuver .
“Resignation!” “Mafia”
chanted in front of the Parliament building thousands of demonstrators at the address of the Prime Minister, throwing projectiles at the police officers equipped with masks and shields.
Forty-five people including 27 police officers, demonstrators and journalists were taken to hospital in the late morning, most of them having been poisoned, according to health authorities and police.
More than 30 demonstrators arrested
Pepper spray and sound bombs were used for the first time in Bulgaria in front of processions, and the NGO Helsinki Committee protested against
"a disproportionate use of force".
More than 30 demonstrators, most of them known to the police, were arrested, said a police official in the early afternoon.
The tension escalated in the evening, with demonstrators throwing firecrackers, stones and bottles for an hour and a half at the gendarmes who were protecting the seat of government and parliament.
The organizers' appeals for calm were not heeded.
The police counterattacked with batons and pepper spray, pushing back the protesters and carrying out further arrests.
Prime Minister Boïko Borissov, in power since 2009, refuses to resign.
His party, Gerb, got the green light from parliament on Wednesday to open debates scheduled to last between two and five months on the need to draft a new constitution.
Observers say the proposal aims to keep the conservatives and their nationalist allies in power until the end of their term in March 2021. The Turkish minority party MDL and the socialist opposition opposed it, the left y seeing a desire to limit the powers of the President of the Republic, close to his positions.
The project does not bring for its detractors any limitation of the power of the Attorney General, today untouchable, while the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has been calling for it for a long time.
In order to gain the support of a nationalist party, the conservatives have agreed to enshrine in the new constitution, if it is adopted, that marriage is exclusively a union between a man and a woman.