Who is Rumen Radev, the former pilot who wants to give Bulgaria wings?

Bulgaria’s former President Rumen Radev, an EU critic who has called for renewing ties with Russia, hailed a “victory of hope” on Monday after his Progressive Bulgaria (PB) coalition topped the polls in Sunday’s election, the eighth such parliamentary vote in five years.

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Many voters see Radev, a former fighter pilot, as the only person capable of giving the corruption-plagued Balkan nation a fresh start.

The 62-year-old has presented himself as a defender of the lowest earners in the EU’s poorest country as he walks a tightrope on European issues.

He has hailed the benefits Bulgaria has reaped from EU membership while calling for dialogue with Russia as its full-scale invasion of Ukraine rages into a fifth year.

“Bulgaria is in a unique position, because we are the only EU member state that is both Slavic and Eastern Orthodox,” Radev, who was president for nine years, said recently.

“That should be used … and we really can be a very important link in this whole process, which I am sure will sooner or later begin, to restore relations with Russia,” he added.

Last year, as president, he called for a referendum on Bulgaria’s entry into the eurozone, saying the Balkan country was not ready to join. Yet his proposal failed and Sofia adopted the joint European currency on 1 January.

Radev has also slammed military aid to Ukraine and the EU, trying to turn its back on Russian oil and gas.

“Geographically, economically, in terms of resources and as a market, we need to rebuild those relations,” he insisted.

Raised fist

For sociologist Parvan Simeonov, Radev is hard to figure out, like many leaders in the region who, “depending on the visiting delegation, choose whether or not to fly the Ukrainian flag in the background.”

Radev insists he embodies distrust of the country’s elites and oligarchs, denying any links to them.

A graduate of the elite US Air War College, he later served as the head of the Bulgarian Air Force.

He entered politics in 2016 and later won a presidential election to the largely ceremonial post.

Born in 1963 in the southeastern town of Dimitrovgrad, the austere and reserved man lacks the polish of seasoned communicators.

When he vows to regulate public tenders through AI or to reform the much‑criticised judicial system, he sometimes gives the impression of reciting a memorised text.

Yet he won over some liberal pro-European voters when he openly supported protesters at anti-corruption rallies in 2020.

Radev walked out of the presidential palace with his fist raised to join the protests that ultimately toppled conservative Prime Minister Boyko Borissov a year later.

Radev was re‑elected head of state in 2021 with two-thirds of the vote.

Modest lifestyle

Late last year, Radev once again backed anti-corruption protesters, and when the last government resigned in December, he stepped down as president to run in the election.

Radev’s left-wing conservative movement, Progressive Bulgaria, brings together a plethora of figures including military officers, former socialist officials and athletes, and the union leader of the country’s main arms manufacturer, which has boomed from supplying Ukraine’s army.

Radev is campaigning to combat social inequalities and promote budgetary discipline without calling for radical change, said Simeonov.

His promises of a return to stability appeal to voters tired of facing election after election.

Married with two children and intensely patriotic, Radev also wooed voters with a modest lifestyle and his defence of what he calls family values.

A campaign video shot in a village shop that went viral showed Radev soothing the grocer, upset over rising prices and Bulgaria’s entry into the eurozone.

Political instability

Sunday’s election follows five years of near-permanent crisis in which no government has survived a full term.

Instead, the country has cycled through caretaker administrations, fragile coalitions and short-lived alliances that have often collapsed amid scandal.

Public trust has all but evaporated. Voter turnout, once a barometer of democratic engagement, has entered a state of chronic decline.

This prolonged instability has unfolded against a backdrop of deepening internal divisions and mounting external pressure.

Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine has exposed a stark fault line running through both society and the political class, one that continues to define the national conversation.

And yet, paradoxically, Bulgaria has, in this same period, taken major steps forward in its European integration — joining Schengen and adopting the euro — often without a functioning government or even a passed state budget.

Meanwhile, delays in reforms have slowed access to EU recovery funds, raising the risk of losing billions.

More than 60% of the votes had been counted by Monday morning, according to the Central Electoral Commission, putting Radev’s PB in the lead with around 45%, an absolute majority of at least 132 seats in the 240-seat parliament.

The outcome of the election is set to not only shape Bulgaria’s domestic trajectory but will also be closely watched across the EU, as the bloc fears further instability in any of its member states.