NEWS

Rumen Radev: We Have a Battle Ahead for the Future of the Fatherland and I Believe We Will Fight It Together with All of You – the Worthy, the Inspired and the Irreconcilable

In an address to the Bulgarian people, the president announced that he would submit his resignation from office tomorrow

Dear Madam Vice President,

Dear Secretaries and Advisors,

Dear media representatives,

Dear compatriots,

Nine years ago, you gave me the vote of confidence to serve Bulgaria as President. You did so again in 2021 - an honour and responsibility that I have tried to justify in all my actions.

Together we have experienced a number of crises, the oligarchy's attacks on democracy and the major protests of 2020 and 2025. Circumstances have forced me to appoint caretaker governments seven times. I have upheld the state and public interest within the limits of my powers.

Today, for the last time, I am addressing you as the President of our Bulgaria. First, I would like to ask for forgiveness. Time has put your trust to the test, so I thank you for your patience. I acknowledge my mistakes, I am aware of what I failed to accomplish. However, it is precisely my belief that we will achieve it and that is one of the main motives for my decision.

In these nine years, Bulgaria has completed the process of its European integration, for which all regular and caretaker governments worked hard. We are now members of Schengen and the Eurozone - a horizon set by our society back in the late 1990s. The question is:

• Why didn't achieving these goals bring stability and satisfaction?
• Why did Bulgarians stop voting?
• Why don't people trust the media and rely on justice?
• Why did the citizens flood the squares twice?
• Why, despite being a European country, do so many people in Bulgaria feel poor, and an even larger proportion live with insecurity?

I have repeatedly said that the answer lies in the vicious governance model. It has the outward signs of democracy, but in fact functions according to the mechanisms of oligarchy:

• Bulgarian politics is done outside the institutions.
• The puppeteers are not shy in front of the cameras to issue directives to the National Assembly.
• They speak on behalf of the government in the presence of the Prime Minister.
• They seize parties, banks, businesses and media.
• They use power as a club against their political opponents.

In this model, discredited politicians, branded as corrupt on an international level, and their accomplices trade with the national interest in order to earn indulgence. In the name of their political future, some politicians put at stake the peaceful life of Bulgarians in the conditions of a dangerous war near our borders. They even encroach on the civil and ethnic peace that you and I will preserve, despite their provocations.

In 2020, society erupted. Several parliamentary elections followed and just as many disappointments. The patchwork coalition government has totally erased the distinction between the corrupt and anti-corruption forces, between the rule of law and lawlessness. The crowning glory of this arbitrariness was the abduction of the Constitution. In its new form, the Basic Law ensured the continuous control of the oligarchy over the executive branch, and the caretaker government is no longer a reliable guarantor of fair elections.

The final rift between Bulgarians and the political class occurred with the refusal of the National Assembly to hold a referendum on the date of the introduction of the single European currency. The elected representatives of the people denied the people their right to choose.

At the end of last year, a new wave of protests swept the government. It gave rise to a broad public consensus against the mafia. A consensus that should materialise in the upcoming parliamentary elections.

Today's political class has betrayed the hopes of Bulgarians in compromises with the oligarchy. Two-thirds of citizens no longer vote. A new social contract is needed.

Our democracy cannot survive if we leave it to corrupt people, deal-makers, and extremists. It depends on the personal commitment of each of us.

Your trust obliges me to protect the state, the institutions, and our future.

At the autumn protests, young Bulgarians made it clear that they did not want to leave Bulgaria. This is a turning point in the psychology of our people. Therefore, it is time to put an end to reconciliation, indifference and individual salvation. To leave behind the divisions that anchor us in the past. It was the unity in the square that showed the way forward.

I want to thank all of you who inspired me with courage over the years. To the people of the yellow cobblestones of the square in the hot summer of 2020. To the students who charged me with their energy in the crowded halls of the universities – Blagoevgrad, Sofia, Plovdiv, Stara Zagora, Burgas, Varna, Shumen, Ruse, Veliko Tarnovo, Gabrovo. Everywhere I was with these young people – the halls were packed with energy and hope for the future of Bulgaria. To the honest people whose handshakes gave me strength. To the thousands of Bulgarians I meet every year in the snows of Mount Shipka, and to the patriots abroad who carry Bulgaria in their hearts.

Thank you for the professionalism, morale, and dedication of my team, to all the people with whom we worked together in the presidency.

I want to thank my wife, who endured all the hardships of these nine years and who was my strongest support in both the good and the most difficult moments.

Tomorrow I will submit my resignation from the post of President of the Republic of Bulgaria. I would like to note that over these 9 years we have shown that a President and a Vice President can work effectively and in accord, united by a common goal. I am convinced that Iliana Iotova will be a worthy head of state and I want to thank her for her support throughout these nine years.

The battle for the future of the Fatherland lies ahead of us, and I believe that we will fight it together with all of you – the worthy, the inspired, and the irreconcilable.

We are ready, we can and we will succeed!