Bulgaria’s Radev government appoints veteran leftist populist Manolova to head consumer protection body
The populist Bulgarian government headed by Roumen Radev, the former president, appointed on September 17 the socialist party veteran and populist Maya Manolova to head the Consumer Protection Commission, reports said.
This was according to reports, given that by the night of September 17, the Radev administration had failed utterly to post on the Bulgarian government website either its agenda or its decisions.
Manolova was an MP for the Bulgarian Socialist Party more than a decade ago, becoming a figure of fun at the time of protests against the “Oresharski” administration, the one that elected controversial figure – now sanctioned by the US and UK for corruption – Delyan Peevski – to head the State Agency for National Security.
Manolova became Ombudsman of Bulgaria from October 2015 to September 2019, when she mounted a failed bid to be elected mayor of Sofia. In office, she used it to promote herself as an advocate for the common person.
In December 2019, she was among the co-founders of the civic platform “Stand Up.BG” , which positioned itself as a civic movement with a focus on social and public causes.
In 2021, Manolova re-entered parliament as an MP in the 45th and 46th National Assembly. In May 2022, the Stand Up Bulgaria party was established on the basis of the civic platform Stand Up.BG, and Manolova was elected its leader.
Ahead of Bulgaria’s April 2026 elections, Manolova stated allegiance to the populist – leftist – nationalist political potpourri led by Radev.
