Radan Kanev

Radan Milenov Kanev (, born 30 September 1975) is a Bulgarian politician who is currently a Member of the European Parliament. A member of the DSB party, which he led from 2013 to 2017, he previously served as Member of the National Assembly from 2014 to 2017.

Biography

Kanev was born in Sofia, but his family's roots are from Varna. He graduated from the Lycée Français de Sofia, subsequently completing his legal studies at Sofia University.

In the 1990s, Kanev was chairman of the youth organization of the Bulgarian Red Cross. After DSB could not make the 4% bar for entry into Parliament during the 2017 elections, Kanev resigned as a leader of the party.

Radan Kanev supported Boyko Borisov's second government: DSB was an official coalition partner. Subsequently, Kanev built a reputation as a strong critic of Bulgaria's Prime Minister Boyko Borisov. He has underlined that in Bulgaria there are major problems with the justice system and the respect for private property. He blames the issues on the Borisov-Peevski model of governance, which has "dominated Bulgarian politics in the past ten years." He joined the European People's Party. Kanev argues that "governing the European Union without the European People's Party is impossible" and advocates that the European Greens should be part of the governing majority in the current European Parliament.

At the 2024 European Parliament election, Kanev was re-elected to the European Parliament. Despite being placed fifth on the PP-DB coalition list, which only won three seats, Kanev was able to receive more preference votes than candidates placed above him. Subsequently, he was to serve 5 more years as an MEP.

Personal life Kanev is married and has one child.