New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday congratulated Rumen Radev and his Progressive Bulgaria party on their decisive victory in the parliamentary elections while expressing readiness to further strengthen ties between both nations.
“Heartiest congratulations to Mr. Rumen Radev and his party Progressive Bulgaria, for their victory in the recently concluded parliamentary elections of Bulgaria. I look forward to working together to further strengthen the friendly and multifaceted ties between India and Bulgaria, as well as our broader cooperation in the region,” PM Modi wrote on X.
Prime Minister Modi’s congratulatory message comes after the Progressive Bulgaria coalition, led by Bulgaria’s former President Rumen Radev, secured a landslide victory in parliamentary elections held on Sunday.
Out of the 91.68 per cent of the votes counted, the Progressive Bulgaria coalition won 44.691 per cent, according to partial results published on the website of the country’s Central Election Commission (CEC), Xinhua News Agency reported.
GERB-UDF coalition came second with 13.398 per cent of the vote, followed by We Continue the Change-Democratic Bulgaria (PP-DB) coalition with 13.210 per cent of the vote, while the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF) received 6.233 per cent of the vote and the Revival party got 4.354 per cent votes.
The other parties and coalitions that participated in polls on Sunday did not pass the 4 per cent threshold to enter the 240-seat parliament.
This marked Bulgaria’s eighth parliamentary election in five years, triggered by the resignation of Prime Minister Rosen Zhelyazkov’s government in December last year amid mass protests over its economic policies and parliament’s subsequent failure to form a new cabinet.
Ties between India and Bulgaria are longstanding, warm and friendly. People-to-people contacts and cultural links between the two countries predate the establishment of diplomatic relations in 1954, according to Ministry of External Affairs (MEA). Despite political changes witnessed by the two countries in the past 60 years, India and Bulgaria have developed a close, cordial and multi-dimensional relationship. The multi-faceted relationship between two nations has flourished based on continuity and mutual understanding and has progressively evolved into a binding friendship.
(IANS)
