Bulgaria to vote, outgoing head of state Rumen Radev confirmed by a large majority

Declare victory in Bulgaria outgoing head of state Romain Radev Which, in the presidential runoff, according to the first preliminary results, far outperformed the contender Anastas Gerjikov. With the support of the socialists, Radev actually got 65.7% of the votes, according to the first polls when out of Gallup International Broadcasting on public television BntHe clearly beats his rival, backed by the former Prime Minister’s conservative Djerb party Boyko BorisovWhich collected 31.5% of the vote. Turnout, according to CEC calculations, would have been very low – the latest figure for 16 clubs (15 Italians), four hours before polls closed, spoke of little more than 24% from sharing.

Romain Radev, 58, is a General Retired, former head of the Bulgarian Air Force. He does not belong to any political group. Even if he had been supported by the Socialist Party, Radev, according to opinion polls, would not have received so few votes even from supporters of other political groups. During the election campaign he did not question Bulgaria’s membership in it European Union NS ThenBut he noted that in foreign policy one should be pragmatic. “The annexation of Crimea is a violation of international law, but there are political realities and at the moment Crimea is Russian,” Radev said last Friday during a televised confrontation with Gerzhikov. He added that EU sanctions against Russia are counterproductive and that the summit European Union and Russia It must be returned to resolve the issue at the negotiating table. Regarding the Bulgarian veto over the start of the negotiations on the accession of North Macedonia to the European Union, Radev emphasized that Skopje is not yet ready to start the process, referring to the policy of the neighboring country against Bulgaria.

During his first term in office, Radev has been living up to his commitment to fighting corruption. He publicly encouraged the thousands of demonstrators who took to the streets every day for several months last year to protest in major cities to demand the resignation of conservative Prime Minister Boyko Borissov, leader of the “Grap” party. Radev then said in a message to the nation that “the Bulgarians have rebelled against the corruption and lies of unscrupulous rulers” and that “the increasing complicity of the government with the mafia has forced them, regardless of their political affiliations, to raise demands for legitimacy and restore basic civil liberties.” Few analysts note that Radev, during his second term, will find himself more comfortable after succeeding in the expected policies of last Sunday From the new center-right Let’s Keep Change party, whose main goal is the fight against corruption. The Constitutional Council entered Parliament as the first political force and would receive the first exploratory mandate from Radev to form a new government. Its leaders, Kirill Petkov and Asin Vasiliev, were the ministers of economy and finance in the first interim government appointed by President Radev after the vote last April, which was followed by snap elections in July.

Bulgaria is a parliamentary republic and the powers of the head of state are limited and mostly representative, but nevertheless the president is elected by universal suffrage. His term of office is five years, renewable only once. The last elections in Bulgaria were held against the background of a Health status Alarming for the epidemic to resume vigorously. Even if there has been a decrease in new infections in recent days, the number of deaths is still high and the proportion of people who have completed the course of vaccination is low, so far just below 25%.