Rumen Radev

Biography

Rumen Radev was born in Dimitrovgrad in 1963 and finished the Mathematical School in Haskovo in 1982. He graduated top of his class from the Georgi Benkovski Bulgarian Air Force University in 1987 and continued his training at the US Air Force's Squadron Officer School, the Rakovski Defence and Staff College and the Air War College at Maxwell Air Force Base, also earning a doctorate in military science. He joined the Bulgarian Communist Party in the 1980s and left it in 1990, when serving officers were barred from party membership.

A fighter pilot, Radev commanded squadrons and air bases before becoming deputy commander of the Bulgarian Air Force in 2009 and its commander in 2014, reaching the rank of major general. In 2016 he stood for president as an independent backed by the Bulgarian Socialist Party and beat GERB's Tsetska Tsacheva in the runoff.

As president from January 2017 he clashed repeatedly with Prime Minister Boyko Borisov, vetoing many government bills and accusing it of tolerating corruption. He was re-elected in November 2021 with about two-thirds of the runoff vote, and his second term was dominated by a prolonged political crisis with repeated snap elections.

Radev resigned the presidency in January 2026 and in March founded Progressive Bulgaria, which won an absolute majority in the April 2026 parliamentary election. He was sworn in as prime minister on 8 May 2026, the first person in Bulgaria to hold both the presidency and the premiership.