“I voted for a free, just and prosperous Bulgaria,” said President Rumen Radev after casting his ballot at 11 a.m. at the Sofia Henry Ford Vocational Training School for Transport and Energy.

I believe that although with difficulty, the Bulgarians hold their fate in their own hands.

In Radev's words, this election will be the first step towards normality and legal governance, which will unleash the huge potential. The head of state urged all adult Bulgarians to vote: "Otherwise history will send us to resit an exam in democracy. Let everyone vote so that we have an estimable, representative parliament," Radev added.

The president announced that he had opted for machine voting and commented that he had been voting in this constituency for a long time, and this is the first occasion he has seen so many people.

Radev is adamant, however, that the organization of the elections is good, but they should have been much earlier. He doesn't think the pandemic has influenced older people not to vote. Bulgarians feel that there is a lot at stake in this election, Rumen Radev said.

He declined to comment on the spy scandal and the US State Department report, addressing those who commented on it without seeing any results or from the Bulgarian court's inspections. But "if the court confirms that there is a breach of national security", it means that not only the Bulgarian national security, but also that of our allies is compromised, the president said.

Therefore, instead of bragging, the question must be answered - why are there employees from the Ministry of Defense whose services are directly subordinate to the Prime Minister, and why the protection of classified information is entrusted to the Council of Ministers, Radev also asked.

He awaits a thorough investigation of the case and an in-depth analysis of its causes. The next government needs to do a lot of work, restore the statehood, the president explained.