Bulgaria’s presidential race has taken a geopolitical turn, with the two leading candidates setting out opposing visions of the country’s place in the European Union and its stance on the war in Ukraine.
President Iliana Iotova, backed by Prime Minister Rumen Radev’s ruling Progressive Bulgaria party, said on September 8 that the country must not be drawn into the conflict. She said the war had no military solution and that Bulgaria should lead efforts to build a coalition for peace, according to state news agency BTA.
Iotova said Bulgaria could not join the coalition of the willing, the France- and Britain-led group preparing for a military presence in Ukraine. She added that the war had already reached the Black Sea and was hitting Bulgaria through drone incidents.
Her main challenger, former caretaker prime minister Andrey Gyurov, responded on September 10 by vowing not to let Bulgaria drift away from Europe. Launching his campaign committee in Sofia, he pledged to act as guarantor of the country’s European path.
Gyurov said he would not allow 35 years of work to secure Bulgaria’s place in Europe to be undone by party, oligarchic or foreign interests. One committee member, academic Kosta Kostov, said the president must be able to say no to policies that work against the EU and NATO.
Radev resigned as head of state in January, weeks after mass anti-corruption protests toppled the previous government, and his new party won an outright majority in April with 44.6 per cent of the vote.
Iotova was his vice-president for nine years. As head of state Radev was a persistent critic of EU sanctions on Russia and of military aid to Kyiv, and his government has since clashed with the European Commission over Bulgaria’s budget deficit.
Gyurov, a former deputy governor of the Bulgarian National Bank who ran the caretaker government from February to May, is backed by the liberal We Continue the Change and Democratic Bulgaria parties.
For the first time in its 20-year history, the centre-right GERB party of former prime minister Boyko Borissov will neither field nor formally back a presidential candidate. Borissov argued that a GERB nominee would split the pro-European vote and play into Iotova’s hands, Novinite reported.
The right-wing, Eurosceptic Revival (Vazrazhdane) party has yet to name its nominee. Its leader, Kostadin Kostadinov, has framed the vote as a choice between his party’s candidate and a field of Brussels loyalists.
Iotova is running with BTA director general Kiril Valchev, and Gyurov with former Interior Ministry chief secretary Georgi Kandev. The final list of candidates is due by September 22.
If no candidate secures an outright majority on October 25, a run-off would be held on November 1.
