Bulgarian Ivanka Dimitrova, who is a long-time resident of France, is running for the lower chamber of the country's parliament (the National Assembly) on the ticket of Marine Le Pen's National Rally (RN) Party in the early parliamentary elections. In the first round of voting, Dimitrova won the largest percentage of votes in Constituency No. 2 in the Seine-et-Marne Department, 35.06%, and will contest the legislative seat in the July 7 second round with Frédéric Valletoux of the Horizons Party (part of President Emmanuel Macron's Ensemble alliance).
Interviewed by BTA by email, Dimitrova said she was born in Vratsa (Northwestern Bulgaria), graduated from Sofia's First English Language School and then in English and American Studies from Sofia University. She left for France in 1990 at the invitation of friends and there she met her future husband, a Frenchman of Spanish origin. The two have five children.
In France, Dimitrova worked as an English teacher and, later on, as a court interpreter.
Her interests cut across the spectrum: opera and classical music, Bulgarian herbs, which she has been studied for more than 15 years and about which she has published a book, and, certainly, politics.
Since 2017, she has been a member of Marine Le Pen's party because she found it was closest to her personal views. "Strange as it may seem to you, but it was in that party's policy line that I found similarities with some of the advantages of the communist system I grew up in: security, public order, concern for the common people. At the same time, the restrictions on personal freedoms that weighed so heavily on us in communist Bulgaria are not characteristic of the party's policy line. A great combination between democracy and public order!" she adds.
Dimitrova says that her interest in politics grew gradually when, from around 2005, she began to observe "a gradual change for the worse in France".
"The state administration became more burdensome and complicated, public life was overregulated at the expense of free choice, we were avalanched with all sorts of rules, prohibitions and restrictions as the population grew and not so much because of the locals' birth rate as because of the reception of more and more migrants who brought their own culture, and because of their growing numbers it became more difficult to integrate them with the local population. Thus, entire neighbourhoods of ethnic communities emerged, and it was logical that they should want to keep the way of life to which they were accustomed. Over the last 25 to 30 years, the public authorities have found it increasingly difficult to control this process, and at one point ethnic laws rather than state laws came to govern certain neighbourhoods. This is becoming a real problem fuelled by a political ideology based on religion, and only a firm hand could restore public order in these places. I believe this party is strong enough to achieve this," Dimitrova added.
Dimitrova was also a National Rally candidate in the 2022 French parliamentary elections. She says what drives her is not an ambition for a political career but a desire "to actively join a movement that has the desire and the strength to restore France to its former status as a peaceful, wealthy and truly democratic country."
Dimitrova says that "in order to put an end to the presumption of mainstream political thought that National Rally is a far-right party whose actions would have unforeseeably grave consequences," the party is trying to open up to all patriotic forces regardless of their orientation.
Asked by BTA what advice she would give to Bulgarian politicians, Dimitrova said: "I think all politicians, regardless of where they hold office, should put their constituents' interests before everything else and should be able to fit them into the interests of the nation as a whole. Although this can sometimes lead to conflict situations, a politician is duty bound to turn conflict into an impetus."
And what is her advice to Bulgarians who would like to leave Bulgaria to try their luck abroad? Dimitrova replies: "Buy yourself a return ticket!"
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