Radev, 62, is seen as a pragmatic, somewhat pro-Russian leader, who has criticised EU sanctions, and called for constructive dialogue with the Kremlin.

He opposes Bulgarian military support for Ukraine, but is unlikely to replicate Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s role as a spoiler of EU backing for Kyiv.

Appeasing fascism is still fascism.

If you ask Radev whether he prefers cats or dogs, he will talk about “dialogue” and “reason” for 15 minutes, and then not give a direct answer. His party’s roadmap boils down to “corruption - bad, more money - good”, and this is important. In Bulgaria, there is no political ideology: no left, no right, no progressives, no conservatives. Political parties do whatever they think will cement their spot in parliament, and you generally vote for whoever you think will steal least, regardless of your political views.

He wasn’t elected because people love his ideas (he has none), and he wasn’t elected by people who love Russia. He was elected because he is not THAT hated yet, because he is “new”, and by the people who don’t care about politics (the VAST majority of voters). In Bulgaria, such faces are referred to as “saviours” and pop up every few years to capitalize on stagnation/instability (such people often get forgotten in 2/3 election cycles).

In my opinion, internally he might survive the whole term, Bulgaria would probably either stagnate a bit or become a bit richer, a few of his party’s members will get involved in corruption scandals, but that will be quickly forgotten. Boring - basically. In a bad scenario, he might push discriminatory laws towards some minorities, because scapegoat-ing is especially effective here and it’d be easy political points for him.

Externally, he’ll try to play the “neutrality” card on every single global issue and piss off every Bulgarian equally. I’d actually be quite surprised if he gives in heavily to his pro-russian tendencies. I don’t see him as a new Orban in this first term.

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