site.btaPresident Radev Criticizes GERB Leader’s Attitude Towards Defence Matters

“What is happening right now with the F-16 [fighter jet] is a reflection of the overall approach of [GERB leader Boyko] Borissov’s administration to defence issues,” said President Rumen Radev here on Friday before journalists at the Monument to the Unknown Soldier in Sofia. 

Radev and Borissov have exchanged accusations over a technical issue in one of the newly delivered F-16 fighter jets that has been in the media spotlight since the end of April and heavily politicized. 

“When you invest in defence not out of personal conviction—as a necessity to strengthen national security—but under external pressure and for some personal political gain, the results are often incomplete and far from what’s desired,” the head of state added.

“You remember who brought this issue into the public arena, who politicized it. It happened right in front of your cameras, all the way from Valencia [where Borissov headed the Bulgarian delegation at the congress of the European People's Party],” Radev pointed out. “And I ask myself, what fault do the pilots and technicians of the Bulgarian Air Force bear for the fact that Borissov’s political family in Europe is turning its back on him and that Mariya Gabriel was not elected deputy chair of the European People’s Party?” the President commented.

“It took me three consecutive consultative councils on national security, with immense pressure, to finally get the modernization process underway,” Radev said. “You remember that if it weren’t for NATO, 2% of GDP would never have been allocated—entirely under pressure from our allies,” he added.

“Regarding the F-16, I want to state clearly that the problem is not with the aircraft, nor with the American side, as some speculate. First, the aircraft is newly manufactured; second, the American side is strictly fulfilling its obligations under the contract,” Rumen Radev also said. “The major problem is that in 2019, it was Borissov’s government that drastically cut the ground technical package, which, according to the recommendation of the American side, must be present at the base to maintain the aircraft reliable,” the head of State explained.