Petar Nikolov-Zikov

He is born on June 3, 1979 in the family of his father, the artist Nikolay Nikolov-Zikov and his mother, a doctor. In 1998 he graduated from the National School for Ancient Languages and Cultures; he then graduated as bachelor in political science at Sofia University (2002) and master of political management (2004). He's married and has three daughters. His wife Pavlina is the granddaughter of Yordan Sokolov – notable politician from the Union of Democratic Forces (UDF) and Speaker of the 38th National Assembly of Bulgaria.

Professional career

Since 1999 he has been publishing articles in popular right-wing newspapers such as Democracy, Pro and Anti and Seven. In 2000 he joined the analysis department of UDF. After the divide of UDF in 2004 Nikolov became head of the political section of Democrats for a Strong Bulgaria (DSB). From 2008 to 2009 he ran his own political TV show – "Thursday Club".

Petar Nikolov was awarded a PhD by New Bulgarian University (NBU) in 2010 and is assistant professor of political science in NBU since then. In 2011 he published his first book The Birth of Bulgarian conservatism; the year after he published The House of Sratsimir, which was then continued by his next historical monograph The True story of the Principality of Vidin. In 2017 Nikolov's fourth monograph, The Political Conservatism, came out of print, written in co-authorship with his colleague from NBU Dr. Irena Todorova. From 2015 to 2017 Petar Nikolov is the editor-in-chief of the academic magazine Conservative Quarterly.

Political career

Nikolov first ran for parliament in 2009, leading the list of DSB in Lovech. Although he didn't become an MP, his positive performance was awarded with a seat in the national committee of the party by the leader Ivan Kostov. He then quickly becomes Kostov's main spokesperson. Nikolov was the strategist behind Proshko Proshkov's campaign for mayor of Sofia in 2011. Proshkov won the internal elections in DSB and became the party nominee but subsequently couldn't defeat the sitting mayor. Due to internal conflicts Nikolov and Proshkov left the party together with Daniel Mitov and Hristo Angelichin (future minister and deputy minister of foreign affairs). They all joined Meglena Kuneva's party Bulgaria for Citizens Movement (BCM) in 2012. With BCM in 2013 Nikolov ran another unsuccessful MP campaign.

In 2014 Petar Nikolov founded the Institute for Right-Wing Policy which aimed to promote and facilitate the coalition between GERB and the Reformist Bloc. After the coalition came into being, Nikolov was appointed parliamentary secretary of the Council of Ministers by PM Boyko Borissov.

Nikolov delivered a surprise in 2017, announcing that he's going to run for parliament from the list of United Patriots. Although he performed well above his party's average result, he still couldn't make it into the National assembly. Initially, during the formation of the coalition between GERB and the United Patriots, his candidacy was promoted to the post of culture minster, but then Petar Nikolov was appointed for Deputy Minister of Education and Science.

Petar Nikolov-Zikov is an author of dozens of scientific articles. His monographs: