Member and Deputy Chairperson of the National Assembly She became a member of Bulgaria's
National Assembly, representing the
Bulgarian Socialist Party in August 2005, taking part in numerous parliamentary commissions. Manolova was one of the ideologists of the machine voting in Bulgaria. During the 42nd National Assembly, she was the chief of the parliamentary commission for creating a new electoral codex which was known as the "Manolova Electoral Codex" and for the first time in Bulgarian history machine voting was introduced, although later delayed by
GERB.
Ombudsman Manolova was appointed as
Ombudsman of Bulgaria by the National Assembly on 20 October 2015. Even though the ruling
GERB party, her socialist party's largest rival, initially rejected her candidacy, it eventually voted in its favour after all of the other parliamentary groups in the national assembly announced their support for it. She left the Socialist Party in order to take up her new position, as Bulgarian law doesn't allow the ombudsman to be a member of a political party. Manolova was extremely active during her tenure as Ombudsman, helping push through several landmark laws as she positioned herself as a "defender of the little people", which made her very popular among the Bulgarian public. By early 2019, she was one of the only two Bulgarian politicians (the other being President
Rumen Radev) with an approval rating above 50%. She resigned as Ombudsman in early September 2019, citing "systematic neglect of the ombudsman institution" and a "lack of political will" by the National Assembly, as well as her intention to run for Mayor of
Sofia, Bulgaria's capital and largest city.
Candidate for Mayor of Sofia After resigning as Ombudsman, she entered into the race for
Mayor of Sofia in the
2019 Bulgarian local elections as an independent candidate without a formal affiliation to a political party. Nevertheless, the Sofia branch of the
Bulgarian Socialist Party decided to support and formally endorse her candidacy several days later on 11 September. Her candidacy was deemed as the first serious
left-wing challenge for the position of Mayor of Sofia since the end of the
socialist period, as following the end of that period Sofia was typically seen as a very safe election for
GERB and a stronghold of
centre-right and
right-wing politics. Following the first round of the election Manolova secured a runoff round, in which she faced longstanding Mayor of Sofia
Yordanka Fandakova from Bulgaria's ruling
GERB party. Although her opponent Fandakova failed to secure a majority of votes even on the second round of the election, she was nevertheless elected as Mayor of Sofia, as she managed a lead over Manolova by about 4% of the vote. Manolova expressed doubts as to the fairness of the election, expressing the opinion that "the entirety of the
Bulgarian underground had been mobilized" to swing the election in favour of her opponent. A week after the vote, Manolova officially filed a motion before the Bulgarian judiciary for the election in Sofia to be annulled and rerun, presenting 14 folders of what she dubbed as evidence of "heavy violations" of Bulgaria's electoral code and law, which she deemed had undermined the fairness of the election and skewed its result. In addition, she filed another civil lawsuit for 15,000
Bulgarian lev against Bulgarian Prime Minister and GERB leader
Boyko Borisov personally. She accused Borisov of "false" and "defamatory" comments due to a statement he made in a television interview in the run-up to the second round of the election, in which he accused her of illegally buying votes from
Romani in one of Sofia's districts. She pledged that if granted, she would donate all of the proceeds to fund the construction of a children's playground in that district.
Political project In late 2019, following Sofia's Mayoral election, Manolova launched a civic movement
Stand Up.BG, which she stated would not become a political party or affiliate itself to such, but would leverage political demands against Bulgaria's government. She stated that she would not run for leadership of Bulgaria's Socialist Party, nor for President of Bulgaria, and would instead dedicate her work to her new project. She described the project as a "civic platform" on a national scale, which would aim to coordinate actions of individual citizens and
NGOs to "fight against monopolies and overconstruction and for
living wages, a fair business environment, the lessening of the administrative burden on citizens and the securing of fair elections". After the
April 2021 Bulgarian parliamentary elections, the coalition which she led,
Stand up! Mafia, get out! (later,
Stand Up.BG! We are coming!), was part of the 45th and 46th Bulgarian National Assembly. During those
National Assemblies Manolova headed a parliamentary commission which revised the 11-year rule of
GERB. Despite numerous efforts from her parliamentary group and the one of
Democratic Bulgaria, they could not reach an agreement with the first political power
There is Such a People to form a government. Manolova and the leader of
Democratic Bulgaria Hristo Ivanov shared their concerns that ''
There is Such a People's
actions were dictated by the Movement for Rights and Freedoms and GERB. Tensions rose so much that once Manolova accused Slavi Trifonov from the parliamentary tribune of trying to persuade her to not become a candidate for mayor of Sofia back in 2019 "for something in return". In November 2021 there were both parliamentary and presidential elections. The coalition Stand Up.BG! We are coming!'' led by Manolova was the first one to support the run for re-election of the incumbent President
Rumen Radev. He went on to win the presidential elections, but Manolova's formation could not enter parliament. After the coalition could not enter parliament, it dissolved itself. As Manolova said, they achieved their goal to take down
GERB and now each of the members had to go in their path - either to the left or to the right of the political spectrum. In 2022 Manolova announced that the civic platform
Stand Up.BG would evolve into a political party -
Stand up Bulgaria. The founding congress of the party was held on May 1, 2022 and was attended by 857 people. According to the political declaration of the party, the main goal of
Stand Up Bulgaria is for Bulgarians to live in a fair, social state, without poverty and inequalities, with the rule of law and intransigence towards corruption, for Bulgaria to be a country with a high standard of living, an innovative economy, affordable quality education and health care for all and clean nature. During this time, Manolova was one of the main critics of the
Petkov Government because of the inflation and the energy crisis. Her main target for critics was the economic vice-prime minister and leader of
BSP Korneliya Ninova. According to Manolova, although Ninova claimed that no ammunition would be sent to
Ukraine, her signature as minister of economics was under every deal for weapon export. After the
motion of no confidence made the
government resign, early
elections followed.
Stand Up Bulgaria participated with the mothers of handicapped children from
The System Kills Us. During the elections campaign, Manolova's formation presented itself as the new pro-European left. Its main causes were peace due to the
Russian invasion of Ukraine, increased social spendings by the government, decrease of energy prices and gasoline, and the rights of handicapped people. The formation could not enter parliament. In the end of 2022 and the beginning of 2023 Manolova participated in left forums, organised by former
BSP member Kostadin Paskalev, which aimed to form a wide left coalition that would serve as an alternative to BSP. Following these events was formed the coalition
The Left! which participated in the
2023 parliamentary elections in the country. Despite expectations created by polls, the coalition could not enter parliament. The coalition later participated in the
2023 Bulgarian local elections and was together with
BSP raised
Vanya Grigorova as a candidate for mayor of
Sofia. Grigorova reached the second round of the elections and lost by 1%. During the summer of 2023 due to the rising tensions surrounding the proposed removal of the Monument of the Soviet Army in Sofia, Manolova and her supporters organised a camp in front of the monument as a sign of protest against the removal. == Personal life ==