Bulgaria: Vanya Grigorova will be the Left’s Candidate for Mayor of Sofia

Vanya Grigorova will be the candidate for mayor of Sofia broadcast by the left coalition "Levitsa" and the Bulgarian Socialist Party. 24 out of 24 BSP structures supported Grigorova's candidacy, and the talks with her lasted for several months. Her candidacy is to be confirmed at the BSP city conference. The motto of her campaign will be: "Sofia for all".

"Yes, we have a common goal - to have representation of ordinary people in the representative office. Millionaires can buy laws, but ordinary people feel unheard. I accepted this challenge because Sofia has been ruled by right-wing parties for 33 years. Therefore, we see in what state is Sofia, renovations of renovations are being made," said Grigorova.

"The governance model in Sofia has been condemned for 33 years. We have yet another failed mandate in the Sofia Municipality. Instead of talking about these topics, we are served something banal like the monument to the Soviet Army and the desire to dismantle it. We are thrown into the field of populism. We have gathered to change Sofia so that it works for the benefit of the citizens, and not only for the benefit of big business," added Ivan Takov, chairman of BSP-Sofia.

"She stands up for social justice. We believe that she will work to solve the problems with reconstruction, with a shortage of kindergartens, for the efficient use of every lev of municipal and European funds. The political right is united in the fight against Bulgarian memory. The united left bloc can propose solutions that restore the dignity of the citizens of the capital," said Kostadin Paskalev, the chairman of the "Levitsata" coalition.

Who is she?

Vanya Grigorova is 40 years old, an economist. She started her working life as a school cleaner and fast food worker. She has been a researcher at an online survey agency, a market expert at a telecom and an administrator at an NGO. Since 2015, she has been an economic adviser to the president of the KT Podkrepa. She graduated from the University of National and World Economy.

In recent years, she has been one of the most active public figures who defend workers' rights both in working groups, commissions, the National Council for Tripartite Cooperation, and in the media space. She is also a representative of the trade union in meetings with representatives of the European Commission, in which she defends the cause of an accelerated increase in the minimum wage and the creation of conditions for an increase in other incomes.

Author and co-author of a number of reports and studies with a socio-economic orientation, including: "Free trade agreements - the tool of the powerful in the global economy" (2015); "International financial institutions and the Bulgarian experiment" (2015); "On Target - Public Water Supply" (2015); “Poor vs. Poor. Uses and abuses of the 'generous' welfare myth' (2016); "The Big Significance of the Small 'Class' Time Served" (2017); "Measures to overcome the demographic crisis in the Republic of Bulgaria" (2017); "Flat Tax or Democracy?" (2018) and others.

She is the chairman of the "Solidary Bulgaria" Association. National coordinator for Bulgaria of the European citizens' initiative against the transatlantic trade agreements - TTIP and CETA, which subordinate people and countries to corporate interests. Participant in the protests against the extraction of shale gas in Bulgaria, the concreting of the Black Sea and the encroachments on the Pirin Nature Park, as well as against the introduction of GMOs into Bulgarian agriculture.

Active defender of people with disabilities in the National Council for People with Disabilities and in the National Council for Tripartite Cooperation, fighter against the so-called "medical examination reform" which deprived tens of thousands of people of assistance or reduced its amount.

Vanya Grigorova is one of the faces of the national civil initiative "Let's stop the inequality machine!", which collected over 30,000 signatures for tax reforms - the introduction of a tax-free minimum on the first earnings of each worker of 560 leva and the introduction of reduced VAT rates for food, essential goods, medicines, textbooks, books.

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