Rumen Radev

Rumen Georgiev Radev (Румен Георгиев Радев ; born 18 June 1963) is a Bulgarian politician and former major general who has been the president of Bulgaria since 22 January 2017.

Radev previously served as higher commander of the Bulgarian Air Force.

Radev was born on 18 June 1963 in Dimitrovgrad, Bulgaria.

His family is from Slavyanovo in the Haskovo region.

In 1982, he graduated from the Mathematical School in Haskovo with a gold medal.

He graduated from the Georgi Benkovski Bulgarian Air Force University in 1987 as the top graduate.

In 1992, he graduated from the US Air Force Squadron Officer School at Maxwell AFB.

From 1994 to 1996, he studied at the Rakovski Defence and Staff College, where he was also the top graduate.

He holds a Doctor of Military Sciences degree in the field of improvement of tactical training of flight crews and simulation of air combat.

In 2003, he graduated from Air War College or Air University at Maxwell AFB in the United States with a Master of Strategic Studies with honors.

He won the 2016 presidential election, as an independent candidate supported by the Bulgarian Socialist Party, defeating GERB candidate Tsetska Tsacheva in the second round.

He won a second consecutive term in the 2021 election, with 66% of the vote in the second round.

In August 2016, the opposition Bulgarian Socialist Party and the Alternative for Bulgarian Revival (ABR) officially nominated Radev as a candidate for the November 2016 presidential election.

In the same month, ABR withdrew its presidential nomination of General Radev in favour of Ivaylo Kalfin.

In the first round of the election, conducted on 6 November 2016, Radev came first with 25.44% of the vote.

He faced GERB candidate Tsetska Tsacheva in the runoff the following Sunday 13 November.

He defeated her, winning 59.37% of the popular vote.

On 1 February 2021, he officially announced that he and Iliana Yotova would run for a second term.

The presidential election happened on 14 November 2021.

Prior to the election, several parties declared their support for Radev, including ITN, PP and BSPzB.

Radev received 1,322,385 votes in the first round, alongside his running partner Iliana Yotova, 49.42% of the vote.

This led to a second round run-off with the GERB-supported candidate Anastas Gerdzhikov, who got 22.83% of the vote in the first round.

Radev won in the run-off, with 66.7% of the vote, starting his second term as president.

Since his election into office, Radev has frequently criticised Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov, whom Radev views as permitting corruption through a 'reckless leadership style', as well as attempting to strangle his political opposition.

This led Radev to frequently veto legislative proposals submitted by Borisov's GERB party to Bulgarian Parliament, issuing a total of 19 vetoes in his first two and a half years of his presidency.

Borisov, on the other hand, often accused Radev of 'sabotaging the government's work', as well as supporting the opposition Socialist Party during campaign periods.

In his 2019 New Year's address to the Bulgarian People, broadcast on almost all Bulgarian TV channels, Radev stated that he believed that Borisov's Government had failed in addressing corruption, placed the country in economic stagnation with price increases and low wages, undermined the fairness of elections, as well as 'retreated' from law and justice.

In June 2019, Radev vetoed a major government contract for the acquisition of several F-16 Fighting Falcons from the United States at a cost of around 2bln lev.

Radev strongly criticised the deal, accusing the government of authoritarianism and stated that he believed it had agreed to downgrades in the jets' avionics and armament, in order to get a lower purchasing price, which he also deemed too high for what they are worth.

He added, that as a former pilot and air force commander, he didn't believe that the deal was in Bulgaria's best interests.

The pro-government majority in Bulgaria's national assembly overruled Radev's veto and the deal was nonetheless concluded.

In November 2019, Radev refused to sign the decree appointing Ivan Geshev to the post of Chief Public Prosecutor of Bulgaria, following the latter's election to the post by Bulgaria's Supreme Judicial Council.

He did not officially declare the motive for his refusal in written form, instead deciding to explain it personally to the media.

Radev remarked that Geshev was the only candidate for the post and opined that the single-candidate nature of his election was supported by Borisov's government.

He expressed the opinion that Geshev's candidacy had been supported only by government-controlled institutions and not by civic ones, which in his eyes led to a lack of public confidence in the institution.

The Supreme Judicial Council refused to revise their decision and voted in favour of Geshev a second time, which triggered a constitutional requirement for Radev as president to sign the decree.

Stating that he would refuse to violate the constitution, Radev did so following a meeting with Geshev, but called for changes to Bulgaria's constitution.

The relations between Radev and the newly appointed general prosecutor quickly soured, as Geshev released what he stated was a wiretap of Radev discussing his involvement in alleged criminal activities.

Geshev further appealed to the Constitutional Court of Bulgaria to have Radev's legal immunity revoked.

The general prosecutor's actions backfired in the eyes of the Bulgarian people and were widely viewed as an attempt to suppress and censor the president – either as 'revenge' for the president's initial veto of Geshev's appointment, or as a preparation for a move to remove Radev from his post as president.