site.btaPresident, Prime Minister Exchange Verbal Fire

Asked by journalists whether the presidential institution and the executive branch of government can be reconciled, Bulgarian President Rumen Radev said on Saturday: "It depends on when the Prime Minister will emancipate himself from his mentors. They are in the recordings." He was apparently referring to a recording of a meeting of Continue the Change - Democratic Bulgaria that was leaked by breakaway MP Radostin Vasilev on May 26.

The head of State talked to the media in his native Dimitrovgrad, where he attended observances of the 76th anniversary of the foundation of the town.

"I don't have any mentors, so probably the President's problem is in that he is not my mentor and there are no other mentors," Prime Minister Nikolay Denkov responded on Sunday. Denkov said he would rather not comment on another person's statement. "Institutions must act according to the provisions of the Constitution and the laws. The one who is out of bounds is the President," the head of government pointed out.

Denkov spoke to the media in Primorsko (on the Black Sea), where the attended the awards ceremony for the entrants in the Lion Heart Ultra Cross Triathlon.