President Radev opened a new page in Bulgarian politics. His stepping down from the presidency to the party ground will give momentum to electoral activity and seriously reshape the next parliament, opening up the possibility of a new governing configuration that seems much less likely without him.
However, the positioning of Rumen Radev’s formation on the parliamentary field is yet to come. In his farewell presidential address, he gave no hints as to what his own political project would be. He only tried to include or appropriate under his general cloak all those who were dissatisfied and fought against the oligarchic status quo – from the protests in 2020 and 2025, from students to Bulgarians abroad.
It did not outline any ideological and political benchmarks except for the blanket request for a “new social contract” and “battle for the fatherland”.
However, in the field of party politics, presidential universalism, even if it is in a populist version, is subject to numerous limitations of political self-determination, from which he cannot escape. The key questions that Radev will have to answer will more or less shrink his big basket.
Is the euro good?
In his presidential speech, the president recalled the illegal referendum on the euro that he refused. But in any case, it is already a fact and Radev will now have to answer whether he considers its introduction successful and whether it is still positive for the country, even if he considered it premature. This issue cannot be swept under the carpet if he claims to be the leader of a major political power of a eurozone member country. Because at the very least, it will raise doubts whether he harbors ideas to take us out of the Eurozone, or at least he will continue impotently and stupidly trying to sabotage it, just to show how right he was and what a defender of direct democracy he is. But even if he were right – and he wasn’t – such grumbling would make him look like a self-centered, navel-gazing politician.
Whose is Greenland?
If in the pre-election debate of the runoff before his second presidential term, Radev had to answer the question “Whose is Crimea?”, now with no less divisive power he has to answer “Whose is Greenland?” Because this is a key question for its position vis-à-vis the EU and the USA, the main benchmark of Bulgaria’s geopolitical orientation in the rapidly changing global environment, on which both the country’s security and economic future depend. After all, the question “Whose Greenland?” comes down to the question “With the EU or with Trump?”, which in its second part may mean with Trump-Putin.
Will there be a new assembly?
Radev accused PP-DB, without naming them, that the assembly erased the difference between corrupt people and those fighting against corruption. This is understandable at least because this assembly with GERB was also against him, as a pro-Russian president during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and against his one-man rule through official offices. However, if he is really fighting against the vicious oligarchic model of governance, he will need partners. And the biggest ones are PP-DB, some of which he called charlatans until recently. Both he and they will invariably be asked every day until the election by journalists and citizens – will you form a coalition?
What else but anti Peevski and Borisov?
Radev will have to offer a broader platform besides the anti-corruption one, which will inevitably position him on the left-right axis. Will it be for keeping tax and social security rates at current levels, or will it be for a more distributive state? Will it, in addition to retributive, also seek social justice with liberal-progressive or left-social policies? Is it for the civil and secular beginning in education or for the imposition of religious education in school? Like any serious political formation, his will have to offer a comprehensive election platform. The question is whether it will have enough distinct distinctions, or whether it will be based on populist omnivorousness with beautiful general messages to appeal to the widest range of people.
Who will be on the lists and in the management echelon?
Like any new formation, the president will face a personnel problem – many careerists and many untested people can undermine the new formation, or deface it with a lack of good personnel density. Unconvincing or compromised individuals can even melt the starting hopes towards it. Radev’s advantage, however, is that with two months left until the elections, the eyes will be focused more on himself than on his people, and the deficits will not weigh much in the beginning. However, like any good soldier, he knows well that a war is not won by winning the battle, but by winning the peace, i.e. with the ability to make victory a lasting success. And this cannot happen without a broad and competent, corruption-proof and scandal-free personnel bank.
Wide center
Rumen Radev’s formation will most likely seek to take broad centrist positions, attracting voters from almost all parties and mainly from those who have not voted so far. His direct electoral donors, however, will be Vazrazhdane, ITN, BSP and Velichie, although most of those threatened welcomed him on the party’s turf. “Vazrazhdane” entered into a sharp confrontation with him, thereby pushing itself to the most radical fringes and ceding to it the more moderate Russophiles and Eurosceptics – unlike its older Western European parties, which remained in sovereignist positions during Trump’s attack on Europe.
The PP-DB is also in a difficult position, whose prospects for more serious electoral growth after the protests already seem to be curtailed by the appearance of the “fresh” competitor in the anti-corruption field. At the same time, an electorally powerful formation of Radev turns out to be PP-DB’s most reliable partner in the battle against the conquered state, and puts it under pressure and in an explanatory mode because of its pro-Russian orientation – “are you going to make a new assembly, this time with Radev and with a compromise on the geopolitical front”. Although the PP-DB immediately after Radev’s statement clearly declared that it remains firmly on its two tracks – anti-corruption and Europe, future collaboration with Radev may not lead to their direct coalition participation in power, unless, for example, he signs some “eastern cordon”.
The most advantageous position seems to be GERB, which will probably consolidate without a serious electoral loss its forces in strategic defense, with the possibility of fierce attacks on an enemy more convenient than PP-DB in the person of Radev, vulnerable with Putin, the euro and “Botash”.
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