Viktoria Vassileva

Victoria Vassileva was born on 27 October 1971, in Ruse, People's Republic of Bulgaria. She graduated from the English Language High School "Geo Milev" – Ruse in 1990.

She worked for Slavi Trifonov's company 7/8 TV as head of administration in Slavi's Show until the show's finale in 2019.^[5]

At the early parliamentary elections in 1997, she was elected from the list of the United Democratic Forces (UDF) to the 38th National Assembly.^[6]

Until 2003, she was part of the leadership of the UDF youth.^[7]

She represented the Initiative Committee that initiated the 2016 referendum.^[8]

In 2021, she was the secretary general of There is Such a Nation (ITN) and in charge of the party's structures. Vassileva was referred to as one of the closest people to Slavi Trifonov.^[9]

In the parliamentary elections of the same year, she was elected from the ITN list as a deputy to the 45th National Assembly from the 10th MMC – Kyustendil. She was elected deputy speaker of the National Assembly and vice-chair of the parliamentary group.^[10][11]

At the early parliamentary elections in July 2021 she was elected as a member of parliament for ITN in the 46th National Assembly from the same multi-member constituency. She was re-elected as deputy speaker of the National Assembly and vice-chair of the ITN parliamentary group. In her tenure as an MP, she was a member of the "Committee on Internal Security and Public Order". In August 2021, she shared her disbelief that the other parties really wanted a coalition agreement^[12] and called the debates in the National Assembly a "circus."^[13]

In the early parliamentary elections in November 2021, she was elected as an ITN MP to the 47th National Assembly from the 1st MMC – Blagoevgrad. She was a vice-chair of the parliamentary group, as well as a member of the Foreign Policy Committee and the Internal Security and Public Order Committee. She was chosen as a member of the Delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

Vassileva participated in the coalition negotiations during the formation of the Petkov Government.^[14]

She left ITN shortly after the dissolution of the 47th National Assembly.^[15][16]

In the 2024 Bulgarian parliamentary election, Viktoria Vasileva was selected as the lead candidate for the newly formed party Velichie in Sofia-Province.^[17] In an interview with the outlet 24 Chasa, Vasileva says she was invited to join the list by Nikolay Markov, with whom she agreed on a number of topics.^[18]

Vasileva was one of the elected Velichie MPs as a result of the elections.^[19] Some media outlets ascribed the surprise success of the party to Vasileva's organisational connections from her days in the UDF and ITN, although she herself has denied such claims.^[18]

During the convocation of the parliament, Vasileva was chosen as the vice-chairwoman of the Velichie parliamentary group and delivered the traditional opening remarks on behalf of the party.^[20] She was later nominated to be deputy-speaker by the Velichie Group.^[21]

Vasileva turned into a source of controversy within the group, when the party's founder, Ivelin Mihaylov, demanded her expulsion from the group, alleging that she was aligned with GERB.^[22] She however did not comment Mihaylov's statements, and claimed that she did not know who Mihaylov was.^[23] Vasileva further stated that she had received death threats, although she did not comment from whom.^[23]

Ultimately, the Velichie parliamentary group ended up being dissolved.^[24] The dissolution of the parliamentary group led to Vasileva's tenure as Vice-Speaker ending prematurely.^[25]

On 16 August, Viktoria Vassileva held an initiative committee meeting for the party "It Makes Sense".^[26] The party, led by Viktoria Vassileva, purports to fights apathy, and corruption.^[26]

The party attempted to contest the October 2024 Bulgarian parliamentary election together with the Bulgarian Social Democratic Party and Be Brave,^[27] however, the Central Electoral Commission rejected its application due to inconsistencies in the provided documents.^[28]