Bulgaria holds its eighth general election since 2021 on Sunday, with former president Rumen Radev emerging as the clear frontrunner. Radev, a 62-year-old former air force commander who served as head of state from 2017 to early 2026, is running for prime minister at the helm of Progressive Bulgaria (PB), a centre-left alliance he founded only in March. Opinion polls place PB between 21 and 33 percent support, well ahead of rival parties.

Radev's rise has been rapid and unconventional. A military career officer who once performed aerobatic manoeuvres in a Soviet-era MiG-29 at an airshow, he entered politics in 2016 as the Socialist Party candidate and won the presidency with 59 percent of the vote. Over two terms, he accumulated political influence beyond the largely ceremonial powers of his office, appointing seven caretaker governments — more than any previous Bulgarian head of state — during a prolonged period of parliamentary deadlock. He resigned the presidency in January 2026, just weeks after yet another government collapsed following mass protests over corruption, Bulgaria's most persistent political wound. In a farewell address, he described the country's system as one that