23/10/2020 (Agence Europe) – On behalf of the European Union, the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs, Josep Borrell, on Friday 23 October congratulated Luis Arce on his election in the first round for President of Bolivia last Sunday. In a statement, he paid “tribute to the Bolivian people, who have shown a real commitment to electoral democracy by going to the polls in large numbers despite the challenges associated with Covid-19 and exercising their democratic rights in a peaceful manner”. Former Minister of the Economy from 2006 to 2017 and again in 2019, Mr Arce accelerated the nationalisation of the energy sector. Between 2006 and 2014, poverty in Bolivia decreased from 60% to 37%. In forced exile in Argentina, former President Evo Morales remains the leader of the Movement Towards Socialism (MAS). (MB)