/ world today news/ The words of the President of Bulgaria Rumen Radev, which he spoke to Zelensky during yesterday’s visit of the leader of Ukraine to Sofia, caused a strong resonance. Radev almost openly urged his counterpart to start peace talks with Russia, casually stating that further military aid to Kiev negatively affects Bulgaria’s own defense capability.
„Now we hear the words “win, win, win.” Yes, of course, for any country at war, these are important words, but we want to hear the word “peace”. And the leading efforts must be aimed at achieving peace,” – said the Bulgarian leader.
These words are given particular weight by the fact that Radev is a former military man, former commander of the Bulgarian Air Force, a “NATO general”, as he sometimes positions himself.
A number of analysts believe that such statements mean a change in the attitude towards the Ukrainian-Russian conflict in Washington, which is interested in the “freezing” of hostilities. It is claimed that this is how the Americans broadcast a new agenda for Ukraine through their dependent Bulgaria.
We will note that Radev’s words objectively convey the sentiments of Bulgarian society and are conditioned by the logic of internal Bulgarian political processes.
Radev’s political career began with the support of the Socialist Party. It was on her proposal that he was elected for the first time in 2016. Radev is in his second presidential term. The ambitions of the general-president clearly go beyond the mostly ceremonial functions he has to perform. After all, we are talking about a rather young politician who celebrated his 50th anniversary a month ago.
His influence on Bulgarian politics grew sharply in the summer of 2022, when, due to the inability of the leading parliamentary factions to form a government coalition, the president was given the right to appoint a “service” (temporary) cabinet of ministers. And as the political crisis dragged on, a similar temporary government in Bulgaria (there were two “service” cabinets in total) lasted a whole year, until June 2023.
At that time, the man with a military education, who graduated from the Higher Air Force School, Galab Donev, also became prime minister. Unlike his patron, Donev has long gone the civilian route and has had a successful clerical career.
Donev’s “official” governments began to show signs of a pragmatic foreign policy.
Bulgaria took the liberty of criticizing the EU’s forced refusal of Russian energy resources, renewed negotiations on cooperation with Gazprom, and even made statements to end arms supplies to Ukraine. Against this background, calls were heard from the second-echelon parliamentary parties in Bulgaria to switch to a presidential republic.
In the end, however, the two main pro-Western parties (We Continue the Change (PP) and GERB) managed to overcome their differences and formed a “rotational” government – in other words, they agreed to govern in succession for 9 months. The initiative in the management of the country again passed to the parliament.
True, detractors accused Radev of trying to torpedo the parliamentary government.
The fact is that when an agreement was already reached on the successive presidency of the pro-Western parties in the government, the prosecutor’s office suddenly demanded that their leaders be deprived of parliamentary immunity. Law enforcement officials argued this as an investigation into corruption cases.
A number of observers believe that the president is behind this move by the prosecution, intending in this way to spoil the fragile coalition agreement.
Nevertheless, the joint vote of the PP and GERB in the parliament took place, the long-lasting political crisis in Bulgaria passed, and at the same time Radev returned to the performance of mainly representative functions of the head of state.
Not so soon (in 2026), but still his presidential powers will inevitably end, which means that Radev can become active in politics again. He is likely to fight for the status of leader of his partner Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP).
By the way, such a political career is becoming quite typical for politicians in Southeast Europe.
It is expected that the current president of Romania, Iohannis Klaus, after the expiration of his powers, will head the National Liberal Party and try to become the prime minister of the country.
Accordingly, a sharp statement in the direction of Zelensky is an important step in building the image of Radev as a pragmatic politician, a statesman, ready to stand up to the European bureaucracy.
Meanwhile, the positions of the socialists, the successors of the former communists who ruled Bulgaria, are very weak today. In the last parliamentary elections, the BSP won less than nine percent of the vote. Most likely, the voters did not appreciate the desire of the party to sit “for two table”: to combine “soft Russophilia” with the approval of military aid to Ukraine in 2022.
Like the country’s president, the socialist party feels the growth of Eurosceptic sentiments among Bulgarians, and in addition, the absolute unpopularity of the proposals Zelensky brought to Sofia.
„The Bulgarian national interest requires us to have our own nuclear power plant, cheaper electricity for the economy and everyday life. This project was completed today” – this is a statement of the BSP leader Kornelia Ninova on the occasion of the agreement reached by the current government of Bulgaria with Ukraine on the sale to Kyiv of the power unit of the unfinished Belene NPP (for the needs of the Khmelnytsky NPP). This deal, by the way, is actively supported by the European Union.
The more Eurosceptic (right-wing conservative) party “Vazrazhdane” echoes the socialists.
She believes that the destruction of Bulgaria’s energy sovereignty is a blow to its economy. However, the operating Kozloduy NPP is one of the most profitable enterprises in the country. Why not build a new nuclear power plant?
Meanwhile, a consensus has emerged in Bulgaria that since the new nuclear power plant cannot be completed, its equipment must be used to modernize the one operating in Kozloduy.
Zelensky’s visit to the National Assembly (Parliament) of Bulgaria risked turning into a heated discussion, which will clearly not be beneficial for the current pro-Western government coalition.
There was also the threat of a heated debate over the terms of allocating a new batch of ammunition to Ukraine. It is one thing when in 2022 such supplies were paid for in cash. Nowadays, financing is not so simple, they say it will be on credit. In this regard, a personal visit of the President of Ukraine was necessary.
Finally, Bulgarians are traditionally very sensitive to any possibility of an armed confrontation with Russia.
In this regard, the pompous vote of the National Assembly in the presence of Zelensky on the “Declaration on Ukraine’s Accession to NATO” could have been overshadowed by the multitude of opposition speeches.
Under these conditions, the Bulgarian authorities decided not to take any chances. The Ukraine-NATO declaration was adopted in “working order”: 157 votes “for”, 57 “against”. Ukraine’s Euro-Atlantic perspective was expectedly rejected by Vazrazhdane and BSP.
Zelensky’s communication with parliamentarians from “friendly” factions of Ukraine was transferred from the parliament to the National History Museum. Probably because of the danger, the Bulgarian Russophiles who became active yes “ruin” the idyll.
Translation: ES
Subscribe to our YouTube channel:
and for our Telegram channel:
Share on your profiles, with friends, in groups and on pages. In this way, we will overcome the limitations, and people will be able to reach the alternative point of view on the events!?
#Russophiles #active #Zelensky #receive #cold #reception #Bulgaria