Bulgaria’s prime minister resigned Thursday after less than a year in office, acknowledging “the voice of the people” after mass protests against government corruption in recent weeks.

The prime minister, Rosen Zhelyazkov, was the sixth to hold the office in five years, done in like many of his predecessors by political and economic instability. His announcement came minutes before lawmakers were scheduled to vote on a no-confidence motion against his government.

“Our desire is to rise to the level of what society expects,” Zhelyazkov said to reporters in parliament in the capital, Sofia. “We have heard the voice of the people who have been protesting. We need to meet their demands, and what they are demanding at the moment is the resignation of the government.”

Tens of thousands of Bulgarians protested over the past month, not only in Sofia but across the country in a rare show of nationwide solidarity.

By most accounts, the demonstrators represented a range of ages but included an unusually large number of young people, a demographic not typically associated with active political engagement in Bulgaria.

The movement against Zhelyazkov’s coalition government began over a proposed budget for next year that would have increased taxes and social security contributions to finance more public spending in Bulgaria, one of the European Union’s poorest countries. It was also to be the country’s first budget counted in euros as Bulgaria formally adopts it as its currency on Jan. 1.