Veselin Mareshki, the entrepreneur-turned-politician, has said his newly set up party will be the big surprise of the snap general poll.

"We continue fighting the fuels cartel, since it is the cartel plundering the state in the worst way," the pharmaceutics boss with several fuel stations in his hometown Varna has told the Bulgarian National Radio.

"We will bring back BGN 2 B in familis and small and medium businesses from [fighting the] fuels cartel alone and a minimum of BGN 2 B more... by stopping smuggling," he has insisted.

Mareshki, a newcomer to politics, bewildered experts by getting the fourth-best result (nearly 11% of the ballots) at the first round of the presidential vote in November.

Earlier, he drew fire from mainstream oil production and distribution companies by selling his petrol at lower prices. He also tabled a referendum on fuel prices and other issues, but his petition was declared void due to an insufficient number of valid signatures.

Formally, his new party named Volya ("Will") will have to use a court registration of an already existing political organization he made earlier. The reason is lack of time until the early election, possibly in March or April.

Mareshki, despite calling on voters to elect GERB's candidate Tsetska Tsacheva at the presidential runoff as "a lesser evil", has denied he would work with the party of outgoing Prime Minister Boyko Borisov in the snap election.