Maverick Socialist Enters Bulgarian Presidential Race

Tatyana Doncheva, the deputy head of left-wing Movement 21 party, has said she will be running for president in November.

Doncheva, who earlier this month quit talks between left-of-center parties over a joint nominee for the elections, has told private bTV station her running mate will be announced "within 10 days".

The ex-socialist politician, who was expelled from the largest opposition party (and then in the government) in 2013 to set up her own project, has added her main goal would be that the party should go as far as possible.

Movement 21 failed to make it into the legislature at the October 2014 parliamentary elections, having garnered less than 4% of the vote, but jumped over the threshold needed to get state funding per every vote received.

On Monday, Doncheva told bTV it was high time for the "political status quo of the transition [to democracy]" has to be dealt with, a task in which the future president should pay a crucial role.

Doncheva quit left-wing talks before the former Air Force Commander, Rumen Radev, was endorsed by the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) and Alternative for Bulgarian Revival (ABV), the party of an ex-President that splintered off the BSP in 2014.

ABV subsequently withdrew from the election alliance as well.

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