For those of you who didn’t follow the Bulgarian Presidential election with me this Fall on my private channel – here’s the update.
The 1st round election was November 6 (two days before ours). Sunday was the run off. (As is typical, there were 23 candidates in the first round. The top two vote getters each received roughly 22% of the vote).
Rumen Radev, a former air force commander won with 59% of the vote. He has never held (or run for) public office. He is pro-Russia. Putin immediately called to congratulate him. Radev was backed by the Bulgarian Socialist Party, an aging, socially conservative demographic.
Center-right prime minister Boyko Borisov immediately resigned.
Purportedly, Radev won because of national fatigue with corruption and poverty. His platform included lifting sanctions on Russia and being friendlier with Moscow. He publicly opposed the EU resettlement plan for refugees (a popular position with Bulgarians).
Thank you for those who followed along. That was fun. As one commenter said “I keep getting confused which country’s election this is”
