Comment by Emilia Milcheva:
President Rumen Radev opened the political stall to voters. In his speech on the 140th anniversary of the Unification, the head of state showed himself as a multifunctional broker and was inevitably suspected of party positioning. To the supporters of the PP-DB he “sells” a battle against the “derebey”, to the electorate of “Vazrazhdane” and “Velicie” - national sovereignty and anti-elitist rhetoric, and for everyone he offers a patriotic-unifying tribute to the historical feat.
In doing so, the president softens the contours. The war in Ukraine has been excluded from his recent public appearances, and his pro-Russian sympathies are not so obvious so as not to irritate and turn against him the sympathizers of the PP-DB and the pro-European part of society.
This is a conscious strategy to soften the image and build broader support. For its part, the PP-DB has also diluted the criticism due to the unprofitable contract with the Turkish company “Botas”, concluded by the caretaker government chosen by the president. Now they come mainly from the ruling majority, whose driving forces are GERB and DPS-New Beginning.
People's Defender 2.0
For several years, the role of “people's defender” has been quite exploited by politicians not only in Bulgaria - and Rumen Radev is no exception. Slavi Trifonov, Kostadin Kostadinov, and Ivelin Mihaylov entered this role, and they all advertised themselves as anti-systemic, anti-elitist, even though they are part of precisely this political elite from which they gain influence and legitimacy. The difference is in the undertones.
The president presents himself as more moderate than the radical “Vazrazhdane” and more statesmanlike than “There is such a people” and “Velicie”, in general as a defender of the people (yet another one) against the venal elite, without going to extremes such as proposals to leave NATO. His speech on September 6 does not attack a specific institution or geopolitical direction, but speaks more generally about “trading with sovereignty”. His entire message is built around the idea of sovereignty and national unity, not around isolation or opposition to international partners.
“The people against the elites” is a classic catchphrase of national populists. “The people”, meaning Radev, who is standing with these people in the square, is the strong, the bold and the capable, but also the victim of the elites, who are “rumormongers”, “slanderers”, “xenophobes”. “Will we leave Bulgaria to the scoundrels?”, asks Rumen Radev from Plovdiv, and answers: “No!”.
But who else does the president resemble when he talks about “national” instead of “European unity” against external threats?
Orban, Radev and national sovereignty
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban often contrasts “national sovereignty“ with “Brussels dictates“, while emphasizing the need for internal unity against external influences. Radev has avoided the anti-EU tone since he no longer represents Bulgaria at the meetings of the European Council in Brussels - and these visits ended with the management of his official offices. But the emphasis on “not to sacrifice sovereignty, the treasury, even our identity“ sounds similar.
One of the theses of “Vazrazhdane” and the opponents of the euro is that national sovereignty is being given up after the single European currency will replace the leva. Incidentally, Rumen Radev's rhetoric about the euro has undergone an interesting transformation. In December 2022, a month before being sworn in for his second term, the president announced the “extremely important memorandum” between Bulgaria, the Eurogroup and the European Commission, which began the preparation for the minting of Bulgarian euro coins. In February 2023, at a conference “Bulgaria on the Road to the Euro”, he defined membership in the eurozone and Schengen as a “strategic national goal”. A year and a half later, he signed the decree promulgating the Law on the Introduction of the Euro.
And after a few more months, he stepped into the shoes of “Vazrazhdane”: Bulgaria is not ready and could disintegrate at two speeds, the government is in a hurry and on May 9 this year proposed a referendum with the same arguments as Kostadinov's party - not against the euro, but against the state's readiness.
Who are the “derebei”
In his first term, Radev quoted Goethe and his words “Licht, mehr Licht” (Light, more light), but his desire to shed light on the processes in the state, for judicial reform and intransigence towards arbitrariness and crimes, seemed to have ended then. Even after that public lecture in 2018 on the challenges facing Bulgaria’s socio-economic development, journalists suspected him of wanting to create a party project. Seven years on, and they are still waiting for him, just as they expect GERB leader Boyko Borisov to run for president.
The problem is not that Goethe disappeared from the presidential narrative, nor that revivalist journalism took up residence there. In some cases, this can be explained by a change in speechwriters. Radev failed to be a leader of changes and their guarantor. Instead, he chose pragmatic partisan rhetoric that served his private political interests. And his calls for judicial reform went up in smoke.
Why doesn't Radev talk about judicial reform anymore
With the talk about the "scumbags" - that's how Delyan Peevski called the MRF's "on Dogan's back" - the president focuses on the sensitive topic of illegal enrichment for millions of Bulgarians. But why isn't there a word about the judicial system, or does he want the people to deal with these "scumbags" like the Jacobins did during the French Revolution?!
Whatever project the president launches, this will be another party built around a leader, instead of a leader sent by a party. Moreover, this leader already has institutional representation with the representatives he personally sent to the Constitutional Court, the Bulgarian National Bank, the Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and others. The protesters against the occupied state, PP-DB and “Vazrazhdane”, which will demand the resignation of the government with a national protest on September 13, do not have such.
And Rumen Radev defends identity.