A 26-year-old woman who got involved in politics because of Brexit is officially the first Romanian County Councillor in the UK.
Dr Alexandra Bulat ran for the Abbey division at Cambridgeshire County Council in the 6 May local elections.
She has been living in the UK since 2012, and last year became British as well.
Speaking about her appointment today, she said: “I think I am the first ever Romanian-British UK Labour County Councillor! Thank you to all who helped me and inspired me to get involved in politics in the first place. Thank you Cambridge Labour and Migrants4Labour.
“From non-voter a few years ago, to County Councillor. Not bad!”
Votes
Dr Alex received 1,129 votes – account for almost 42 per cent of the votes. Green candidate Jeremy Caddick came second with 924 votes, accounting for 34 per cent of the votes.
Tory candidate Timothy Haire and Liberal Democrat Rosy Ansell both received 12 per cent of the votes, with 326, and, respectively 324 votes.
Earlier today, Dr Alex said she was “really excited” because it was her first time going to a vote count.
She said: “Whatever the result I’m really happy I had so many conversations with people and motivated many EU citizens to vote!”
‘Brexit made me realise political decisions affect individuals directly’
The London Economic spoke to Dr Alex last month, who told us she was not interested in politics until the EU referendum, but the vote determined her to get involved.
She started volunteering with campaigning organisation the3million in 2017, dedicated to the rights of EU citizens in the UK.
She said: “I first got involved with migrants campaigning but then I thought, I can complain as much as I want about things I think are wrong in the society, but it’s unlikely to change the outcome without EU citizens in politics.”
Part of Migrants4Labour, she wants EU citizens to have a say
Dr Alex also told TLE she is part of a recently launched EU citizens group, Migrants4Labour, which is set to change Labour from within.
She added M4L received support from London’s Mayor Sadiq Khan and Labour MPs Afzal Khan MP and Catherine West MP.
She pointed out there are over 800,000 applications from Romania for the EU settlement scheme, but there was no representation at political level – until today.
But considering the high numbers of Romanians, she thinks there is still more to do.
She said: “For a very long time, people didn’t want to engage on the topic of immigration across parties because it’s very divisive.
“I think in the long term what the party can do is to talk about this topic. Regardless of people’s views on freedom of movement, I think we need to start taking migrant voters seriously.”
Focus on poverty and children
Dr Alex said she likes to listen to what people “want and are concerned about” in the area.
She said: “I am really passionate about children and one in five children in Abbey live in poverty. One of the issues is whether parents can keep them in nursery school.
“It’s not only one of the richest countries in the world, but one of the richest cities in this country.
“The Conservative government cut a lot of funding for early education over the last few years so the County Council funding is not very good.”
Related: Dr Alex could become ‘first Romanian county councillor in the UK’
Migrants4Labour: The new political group out to give EU citizens a voice in UK politics
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