In 2016, GERB made one of the biggest political mistakes in the recent history of Bulgaria. Then the ruling party pitted Tsetska Tsacheva against the almost unknown General Rumen Radev. A candidate who symbolized everything that society had already begun to tire of - party predictability, administrative style and a sense of political status quo. The result was devastating. Over 2.63 million Bulgarians stood behind Rumen Radev, while GERB's presidential candidate pair Tsvetanka Tsacheva – Plamen Manushev received only 1.256 million votes. This was not just an election loss. This was the birth of a new political center in Bulgaria. And the paradox is that it was GERB that created it with its own hands.
In 2016, Rumen Radev was not a classic politician at that time.
He was a general, a man outside the party system, onto whom people projected their anger against the accumulated distrust of the government.
GERB underestimated this very thing. In response to public fatigue, they produced not change, but the personification of the system. And so they literally gave Radev the halo of an anti-system player.
Then came the protests, the caretaker cabinets, the war between the institutions, and gradually Rumen Radev began to build his image as a man against the status quo. Two presidential terms later, he is no longer just a president, but a political factor with real influence on the entire terrain. And the basis of this rise is precisely that clash from 2016.
People naturally gave their trust to a person whom they did not know as a politician at the time. They saw in him an alternative, not part of the worn-out party machine. But today the situation is different. Expectations for Rumen Radev are already huge, because he is finally taking on the role of a political leader and manager, and not just a corrective.
And here comes the big change.
While he was president, Radev could benefit from the distance from the government.
From now on, however, any real managerial responsibility will begin to bear negative consequences. This is how politics works everywhere — management always erodes trust. Especially when expectations are so high.
The irony is complete — the politician who spent nine years building himself as a symbol against the system was created precisely by GERB's biggest systemic mistake. And if today Rumen Radev stands as the strongest political player in the country, then part of the blame undoubtedly belongs to Tsetska Tsacheva.