President Rumen Radev won widely in the second round of the elections in Bulgaria, a victory that reinforces the anti-corruption movement currently in negotiations to form a government and get out of the political crisis.
With the support of various parties of the so-called “change”, the 58-year-old head of state obtained about 66% of the votes, according to partial results published Sunday night.
“Bulgaria is coming out of the stalemate,” declared the re-elected president, a former pilot of the Air Force, after knowing the partial results.
His adversary, the rector of the Sofia University, Anastas Guerdjikov, 58, an independent who had the support of the former prime minister’s conservative GERB party Boyko Borisov, it obtained near 33% of the votes.
Guerdjikov acknowledged his defeat but warned that “the entire state apparatus worked for the president.”
The elections were held in the midst of the worst political crisis in the country since the end of communism and in the midst of the deadly wave of Covid-19.
Bulgaria has the rate of vaccination against Covid-19 lower than the European Union (less than 25% of the 6.9 million inhabitants are vaccinated), one of the mortality rates of coronavirus tallest in the world and overflowing hospitals.
The first round took place last weekend, at the same time as the legislative elections, without any candidate obtaining an absolute majority.
Radev was the most voted in the first round, with 49% of the votes.
The country has been under an interim Executive since April, and the July elections failed to define an alternative government after the 10-year rule of the Conservative Prime Minister Boyko Borisov.
Radev, a former senior air force commander, was backed by the Socialists in his first five-year term in office, but this time he was participating as an independent.
He is supported by a broad coalition that includes “Continuamos el Cambio,” whose founders Kiril Petkov and Asen VasilevBoth Harvard graduates were ministers in the first interim government, appointed by Radev in May.
“The president of change”
The re-election of Radev is good news for the young anti-corruption party “We continue the change”, unexpected winner a week ago of the legislatures.
“The election of the president will influence the whole development of Bulgaria,” Petkov, who aspires to be prime minister, had said. This week, he had called to vote for who “started the change.”
“We Continue the Change” hopes to find allies to form a government that will end the six-month stalemate.
The government crisis occurred amid the scourge of the Covid-19 pandemic in the poorest country of the European Union.
Bulgaria has a parliamentary system and its president fulfills a largely ceremonial role as head of state and commander-in-chief of the armed forces. Thus, the outcome of the presidential election will have little effect on the negotiations to form a coalition government.
“The classic axes of division in Bulgaria – east / west, right / left – were overtaken by a new common axis in all elections this year”: the 10-year boredom of the Borisov era, summed up the political scientist Antony Todorov from New University of Bulgaria.
Radev supported last summer’s anti-corruption protests against Borisov, shouting “out mafia!” with his fist raised, as he briefly accompanied the crowd.
Following two failed attempts to form a government in April and July, Radev appointed two interim administrations that were harshly criticized for their mismanagement of the coronavirus pandemic.
The country has struggled to distribute the anticovid vaccines amid strong feelings of rejection and the proliferation of fake news.
However, the interim governments were recognized for revealing cases of corruption, fraud and mismanagement under Borisov, which would have favored Radev, according to Gallup analyst Svetlin Tachev.
Reference-www.eleconomista.com.mx