Former President Rumen Radev: By March 4 at the Latest, We Will Register as Coalition at Central Election Commission

On March 4 at the latest, we will submit to the Central Election Commission (CEC) a registration with a coalition with a clear name, President (2017-2026) Rumen Radev said at a meeting with Bulgarians in Berlin on February 15, the highlights of which are published on his Facebook page. The meeting was also broadcast live on Youtube.

He explained that he will not be running with his party in the upcoming parliamentary elections, citing insufficient time for its registration..

“As President, I have not for a second violated the Constitution; I have not built a platform, programme, structure, or networks,” he said.

That is why he will go to these elections as a coalition with parties that currently have regular registration. Radev did not name the parties, citing concerns over what he described as the “repressive machine,” but clarified that the coalition does not include the Alliance for Rights and Freedoms.

Rumen Radev explained that handing over the third mandate to them was a symbolic act against all those who tried to sow ethnic tension in society. “We will respect the legal deadline, submit a coalition registration with a clear name to the Central Election Commission, clearly announce our programme, and submit the lists within the legal timeframe,” he emphasised.

The leaders of the electoral lists, coordinators, and polling representatives will also be announced within the legal timeframe.

Asked how, and with what team, he would confront the oligarchy, Radev said he is assembling a large team of like-minded individuals who put Bulgaria first, ready to enter the battle to dismantle the oligarchic model, which, according to him, will be neither easy nor safe and will require great perseverance.

“People who want to build a government that is accountable, transparent and responsible, and engages with the real issues,” he emphasised.

According to him, Bulgaria will also be strong when we defend our national interests, consider how to support the EU, and do not accept every decision unquestioningly.

“We have prepared a comprehensive programme to dismantle the oligarchic model, which includes strict budgetary control, a new Supreme Judicial Council to appoint a new chief prosecutor so that the system functions and justice is ensured. We should also fight inequality because it is directly linked to the oligarchy. We have a plan and a very clear vision of how we will do it - with political will and determination, it will happen. We will lead Bulgaria, we are fully determined, but if we do not do it now, it will become irreversible,” he said.

Radev believes that the energy of the protest in the squares at the end of last year in all major cities is still alive and will inevitably lead us to change. “I am here to show respect to all of you, representatives of the Bulgarian community in Germany,” he told compatriots at the start of the meeting.

“Our main goal is to change Bulgaria so that you and your children can choose the path back home,” Radev added. “Achieving this will not be easy; we face a fierce clash with the Borisov–Peevski model. This oligarchic model has led to the erosion of state institutions, the capture of law enforcement and the judicial system. Instead of fostering innovation and free competition, it has focused on appropriating vast public resources in a non-transparent way, with serious consequences — growing poverty and inequality,” said Rumen Radev.

“The government has resigned, but that does not mean it has retreated; it has regrouped, and at present ‘shameful processes’ are underway,” Radev continued.

According to him, enormous misappropriated funds are currently being poured into buying votes, with the police, parts of the administration, the National Revenue Agency, and some forestry authorities mobilised to protect this phenomenon, which is ugly for a European country.

"They did the most basic thing for a power model - they limited the number of polling stations in countries outside the EU," he commented on the latest changes to the Election Code.

“Traces are being feverishly covered up, documents destroyed. This was the reason for the protests and for me to resign, to respond to the calls of all the Bulgarians I met — to create a political formation that would stand up to this model. We have two clear goals — to dismantle this corrupt governance model and to strengthen statehood, to open the way for Bulgaria’s accelerated development as a modern, prosperous European country,” Radev emphasised.

Bulgaria faces a fateful choice – to shake off the shadows and dependencies of the transition in these elections or to remain captive to them for an unknown period of time. He expressed the hope that many more Bulgarians in the country and abroad will come out to vote in the early elections.

"In a few days, Rosen Zhelyazkov's government will be gone, and you will hear boasts, but this administration has insultingly fulfilled all the whims of the oligarchy, leaving behind record debts, captured institutions and growing poverty," Rumen Radev noted.