site.btaFormer President Radev: "We Will Register as Coalition at Central Election Commission by March 4"

Meeting with Bulgarians in Berlin on Sunday, former president Rumen Radev (2017-2026) said that his team will submit a registration as a coalition with a clear name at the Central Election Commission by March 4 at the latest. The meeting was broadcast live on YouTube. 

Radev explained that he would not be running in the upcoming parliamentary elections with his own party because there is no time to register it. "As president, I have not for a second allowed myself to violate the Constitution; I have not created a platform, programme, structure, or networks," Radev said. Therefore, he will run in these elections as a coalition with parties that are currently registered. Radev did not name them, fearing, in his words, the repressive machine, but specified that it was not the Alliance for Rights and Freedoms. "The fact that I handed them the third cabinet-forming mandate was a symbolic act against all those who tried to sow ethnic tension in society," Radev explained, referring to the constitutional procedure after the regular government's resignation in December.

"We will comply with the legal deadline, we will submit a registration with the Central Election Commission with a coalition, with a clear name, we will clearly announce our programme, we will enter the legal deadline with the [candidate] lists," he emphasized. The leaders of the lists, the coordinators, and the supporters will also be announced within the legal deadline.

When asked how he would fight the oligarchy and with what team, Radev pointed out that he is gathering a large team of like-minded people who put Bulgaria first and are ready to join the battle to dismantle the oligarchic model, which, according to him, will be neither easy nor safe and will require a lot of perseverance. In his words, these are people who want to build a government that is accountable, transparent, and responsible, committed to real problems. "Bulgaria will be strong when defend our national interests, think about how to help the EU, and do not accept every decision without question. We have prepared a whole programme for dismantling the oligarchic model, which includes strict control over the budget, a new Supreme Judicial Council to elect a new chief prosecutor, so that the system works and there is justice," Radev explained. 

"We must 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 in the squares since the end of last year in all major cities is alive and will inevitably lead Bulgaria to change. 

"I am here to show my respect to all of you, representatives of the Bulgarian community in Germany," he said to the Bulgarians in attendance. "Our main goal is to change Bulgaria so that you and your children can choose to return home," Radev added. "Achieving this will not be easy; we are facing a fierce clash with the Borissov-Peevski model [GERB leader Boyko Borissov and MRF - New Beginning leader Delyan Peevski], an oligarchic model that has led to the erosion of statehood and the takeover of law enforcement agencies and the judicial system. Instead of focusing on innovation and free competition, this model concentrates on the opaque appropriation of enormous public resources, and the consequences are severe - growing poverty and inequality," Radev argued. 

"The government has resigned, but that does not mean it has backed down; it has regrouped and shameful processes are currently underway," Radev went on to say. In his words, huge amounts of stolen funds are currently being poured into buying the elections, with the police, part of the administration, the National Revenue Agency, and part of the forestry sector being harnessed to protect this phenomenon, which is ugly for a European country.

"They did the most basic thing for a power model - they restricted voting sections in countries outside the EU," he commented on the latest changes to the Election Code. "Traces are being frantically covered up, documents are being destroyed. This was the reason for the protests and for me to resign and respond to the calls of all Bulgarians I met – to form a political group that would come out and oppose this model. We have two clear goals – to dismantle this vicious model of governance and strengthen statehood, to pave the way for Bulgaria's accelerated development as a modern, prosperous European country," Radev emphasized. In his words, 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, hijacked institutions, and growing poverty," Radev told those attending in the meeting in Berlin.