Pro-Russia Rumen Radev wins Bulgarian presidency

 

Former air force commander who has called for an end to EU sanctions against Russia wins election by wide margin.

Pro-Russia, anti-migration candidate Rumen Radev won the Bulgarian presidential election, partial official results showed on Monday.

Former air force commander Radev won 59.4 percent of the vote, compared with 36.2 percent for the candidate of the ruling centre-right GERB party, Tsetska Tsacheva, with 99.3 percent of polling stations counted.

Bulgaria faces an uncertain future after centre-right Prime Minister Boyko Borisov quit his post following the crushing defeat of his presidential nominee at the hands of Radev.

"The results clearly show that the ruling coalition no longer holds the majority," the premier, who was re-elected in 2014 for a second time, said on Sunday evening.

"I apologise to those who supported us. I thought I was doing the right thing."

Radev, a former fighter jet pilot and novice to politics, has tapped into public anger with political elites and fears about immigration, and vowed not to make the Balkan country a "migrant ghetto".

Despite promised reforms, corruption and poverty remain rife in the EU's poorest member state, while public anger has grown over thousands of migrants currently stranded in Bulgaria.

Speaking on Sunday evening, Radev said he hoped for good dialogue with both the US and Russia, and expressed hopes that with a new president in Washington, there will be a drop in confrontation between the West and Moscow.