After Donald Trump's surpising victory in the US eletion, Bulgaria has become one of the formerly Communist countries in the East going through a surge of populist politicians, the New York Times has noted in a profile of businessman Veselin Mareshki.

The Varna-based entrepreneur, who owns a pharmaceutics chain, fuel stations and other businesses, will run in March 26's early election with his party called Volya, or "Will". Polls suggest he will make it into Parliament.

Mareshki is described as a "self-promoting tycoon who embazons his last name on the hundreds of pharmacies he owns across Bulgaria."

Dubbed "populist", he also preaches "patriotism, strict immigration controls, friendlier relations with Moscow and, above all, the need to "sweep away the garbage" of a corrupt political establishment".

The New York Times quotes him as saying he believes he is "an anti-establishment candidate like Donald Trump", seeing "a lot of similarities with his campaign" and "a very different approach [of Trump] from the mainstream candidates in America" the way Mareshki believes he also does.

But differences between the two are also pointed out, with Marshki selling medicines at cheaper prices and claiming pharmaceutical and fuels cartels are "ripping off consumers", in a country where the ageing population has a special need for medicines, living on what the NY Times calls "meager pensions".

A newcomer to politics, Mareshki mustered 11% of the presidential vote last year and got the fourth-best result, surprising all pollsters.

The profile is available here.

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