SOFIA, May 8. /TASS/. Rumen Radev, leader of the Progressive Bulgaria coalition, which won the early parliamentary elections, has been elected prime minister, according to a broadcast on the National Assembly’s website.
The former president received 124 votes from lawmakers representing the Progressive Bulgaria coalition. Thirty-six lawmakers from the Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria party bloc, together with the Union of Democratic Forces, abstained. Seventy lawmakers from the Continue the Change, Movement for Rights and Freedoms, Revival parties, and the Democratic Bulgaria alliance voted against.
With 122 votes in favor, the members of the new Bulgarian government were elected: four deputy prime ministers and 18 ministers nominated by Radev. Galab Donev, who had previously headed Bulgaria’s caretaker government twice, took the post of deputy prime minister and finance minister, Aleksandar Pulev became deputy prime minister and minister of economy, investment, and industry, Ivo Hristov and Atanas Pekanov were elected deputy prime ministers. Ivan Demerdzhiev became interior minister, Dimitar Stoyanov was appointed to head the Defense Ministry, while Velislava Petrova-Chamova will serve as foreign affairs minister and Iva Petrova as energy minister.
