Authors: Jean-Baptiste Chastanet, Philippe Jacquet, "Le Monde"/translation: dnes.dir.bg
Arriving in Paris for the ceremonies marking July 14, Bulgaria's new Prime Minister Rumen Radev, elected on April 19, showed serious unkindness towards French diplomacy.
After attending the dinner of the heads of state and government of the Coalition of the Willing, organized on Monday, July 13, at the Elysee Palace at the invitation of Emmanuel Macron, the leader, known for his pro-Russian statements, announced on Tuesday from Paris that Bulgaria will not participate in the unification of countries, supporting Ukraine and strengthening European defense against the Russian threat.
"We will not participate in a coalition that insists on continuing financial and military aid to Ukraine. "I am convinced that the solution to this conflict does not lie in prolonging it by military means, but in decisive diplomatic efforts capable of ending the escalation," Radev told the Bulgarian media on the sidelines of the military parade on the occasion of July 14.
Although a small delegation from the country's presidential guard did subsequently pass along the Champs-Élysées boulevard alongside military personnel from about thirty European countries, Radev placed its participation solely under the sign of the "excellent relations between Bulgaria and France."
President of Bulgaria in the period 2017-2026 - a post with mainly representative functions - Radev had already attracted attention in Europe with pro-Russian statements. However, since becoming prime minister in May, after leading his election campaign mostly with anti-corruption messages, he has already determined the foreign policy of this country with nearly 6.5 million inhabitants on the Black Sea coast. Constantly calling for "de-escalation", he announced immediately after his election that Bulgaria would no longer provide military aid to Ukraine.
However, his country has already provided, since 2022, essentially everything it could provide, and its ammunition factories specializing in Soviet calibers continue to produce large quantities for the Ukrainian army on a commercial basis.
A former military pilot who entered politics with a rather left-wing message, the 63-year-old Radev has gradually adopted a difficult-to-define political line, demonstrating in particular his closeness to former Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.
His ambiguous statements about Russia appeal to the strong pro-Russian current, which represents about a third of the population of this country, a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) since 2004. and the European Union (EU) since 2007. After winning nearly 45% of the vote in the parliamentary elections, his coalition "Progressive Bulgaria" has an absolute majority in parliament.
Bulgaria has threatened to veto the 21st package of European sanctions against Moscow, currently being negotiated in Brussels, if Russian Patriarch Kirill and two Russian oligarchs with economic interests in Bulgaria are not removed from the list of sanctioned individuals.
Foreign Minister Velislava Petrova-Chamova told Euronews on Tuesday that sanctions against Kirill I risk "feeding anti-European rhetoric in an Orthodox country like Bulgaria". Sofia was certainly not the only European capital that wanted to avoid sanctions against the patriarch, but it was the only one that made it such a public issue.
Radev also did not attend the Ukraine-Southeast Europe summit, hosted by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday, July 15, in Kiev. However, even the strongly pro-Russian president of neighboring Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, made the trip. Although Radev's diplomacy is sometimes compared to that of Viktor Orbán, it is still far from the foreign policy line of the former Hungarian Prime Minister and is more reminiscent of the ambiguous position of the Czech Republic, Slovakia or even the new Hungarian Prime Minister Peter Magyar.
All of these countries avoid participating in the Coalition of the Willing or join it only as observers, following the example of Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis.
After achieving the removal of the three individuals from the list of sanctioned individuals, Bulgaria promised to support the 21st package of sanctions. So far, the country has not blocked the negotiations for Ukraine's accession to the EU and continues to participate in the 90 billion euro European loan for Kiev, approved in May.
For now, Radev is "under surveillance", Brussels assures, but no one is really worried. Because, although he likes to flatter the nationalist and pro-Russian sentiments of some Bulgarians, he knows that his country remains too dependent on the European Union to be able to afford a real break with it.