Maya Manolova

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.

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.

In late 2019, following Sofia's Mayoral election, Manolova launched a political project dubbed 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 lessing of the administrative burden on citizens and the securing of fair elections".

Manolova was married to Milen Manolov, a customs officer from her home town. She had one daughter from this marriage. She divorced him in 2007. She married Angel Naidenov, a politician from the Socialist Party, on 2 October 2016. Manolova speaks English and Russian in addition to her native Bulgarian.

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.

Following the 2013 Bulgarian parliamentary election, she was elected as Deputy Speaker of Bulgaria's national assembly. She lost that position after her party's exit from government following the 2014 Bulgarian parliamentary election, but was reеlected as a member of the National Assembly for another term.

In 2008, she took control of the Socialist Party's Kyustendil branch.

She became a member of Bulgaria's National Assembly representing the Bulgarian Socialist Party in August 2005, taking part in numerous parliamentary commissions.

Maya Bozhidarova Manolova (Bulgarian: Мая Божидарова Манолова ) (born 4 May 1965) is a Bulgarian politician and formerly the vice-chairperson as well as a deputy in the Bulgarian National Assembly, as well National Ombudsman of Bulgaria.

Manolova was born on 4 May 1965 in Kyustendil. She attended Moscow University and later the Bulgarian University of National and World Economy, graduating with several master's degrees in History (1988), Economics (1994) and Law (1998), as well as completing a specialty program in social management. Manolova was a registered attorney in her home town of Kyustendil from 1998 to 2015.