site.btaSocialists Nominate Gen. Roumen Radev as Presidential Candidate

Socialists Nominate Gen. Roumen Radev as Presidential Candidate

Sofia, August 17 (BTA) - The National Board of the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) nominated Gen. Roumen Radev as their presidential candidate, participants in the meeting said on Wednesday. In a secret ballot, Radev garnered 99 votes, Roumen Gechev - 38 and Tasko Ermenkov - 13.

During the hearing Iliyana Yotova, Mihail Mikov, Mario Traikov and Yanaki Stoilov withdrew from the race.

The election platform, adopted at the plenum, points out that the President should withstand the understanding that Bulgaria has a friendly disposition towards Russia, so that it could defence the state interests at a moment of an acute refugee crisis and a crisis of main European values. 

The former Air Force chief Radev resigned on August 1, citing attainment of the compulsory release age. At a BTA-hosted news conference on Tuesday, Radev said that he objects against the concept for the joint fulfillment of the mission for air policing of the country's air space within NATO Integrated Air and Missile Defence System (NATINAMDS) approved by the Defence Minister in February 2016.