Prime Minister Shehbaz congratulates Radev on his ‘historic victory’

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Wednesday congratulated Rumen Radev for what he described as a “historic victory” in Bulgaria’s recent parliamentary elections.

In a post shared by Prime Minister Shehbaz on X, he said Pakistan “values ​​its cordial and friendly relations” with Bulgaria and expressed hope for closer cooperation with the incoming government.

“I congratulate Rumen Radev on his historic victory in the recent parliamentary elections in Bulgaria,” said the Prime Minister.

He added that Pakistan looks forward to “working closely with the newly elected Bulgarian government to further strengthen our bilateral ties in the coming days.”

Rumen Radev won Bulgaria’s election by a landslide, official results showed on Monday, sidelining long-dominant political forces and potentially pushing the European Union and NATO member states “closer to Moscow.”

The performance, which beat opinion poll forecasts, is one of the strongest results for a single party in a generation and may put an end, for now, to the chronic instability that led to eight elections in five years.

Read more: Hungarians vote in historic elections closely watched by the EU, Russia and the US.

Radev’s Bulgarian Progressive party won 44.7% of the vote after 91.7% of votes were counted, suggesting he could govern alone, but he has not ruled out a coalition with a pro-European group or a smaller party.

Progressive Bulgaria’s tally puts it well ahead of the pro-European coalition We Continue the Change-Democratic Bulgaria (PP-DB), with 13.2%, and the long-dominant GERB party, led by former Prime Minister Boyko Borissov, with 13.4%.

“This is a victory of hope over distrust, a victory of freedom over fear and, finally, if you will, a victory of morality,” Radev said at a news conference late Sunday.