George Ganchev


George Ganchev was a Bulgarian politician and founder of the now-defunct political parties Bulgarian Business Bloc and George Ganchev's Bloc.

Biography

Petroushev was born on August 29, 1939 in Plovdiv. He studied at the Sports Academy in Bulgaria. In the early 1960s he married an Englishwoman and emigrated from Bulgaria. Some sources put the year in which he became an expatriate as 1967. He graduated from the British Academy of Fencing and the Hollywood Theatrical Institute. Ganchev was also World Professional Fencing Champion in 1970 and 1974. Afterwards he committed himself to directing, play-writing, film and play producing in Great Britain and the United States. During the mid-1970s, he taught swordfighting at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in Pasadena, CA.

Political career

After Todor Zhivkov was removed from power on November 10, 1989, Ganchev returned to Bulgaria and took part in founding the Union of Democratic Forces.
He later founded the Bulgarian Business Bloc in 1990 and was elected its chairman. The party contested the 1991 parliamentary elections but won only 73,379 votes ; failing to cross the 4% electoral threshold.
Ganchev ran for president the following year with Petar Beron as his running mate. They finished 3rd with 16.8% of the popular vote; behind the SDS candidate Zhelyu Zhelev and the socialist endorsed Velko Valkanov.
The Bulgarian Business Bloc had a breakthrough in the 1994 parliamentary elections, winning 4.7% of the popular vote and winning 13 seats. Ganchev was elected as a member of parliament.
Ganchev ran again for president again in 1996, this time with Arlin Antonov as his running mate. They finished 3rd, but with 21.9% of the popular vote this time.
In the 1997 parliamentary elections the BBB won 4.9% of the vote, but was down to only 12 seats.
Before the 2001 parliamentary elections he left to form a new party, George Ganchev's Bloc, but the new party was a failure, winning only 17,272 votes. However, the new party had clearly eclipsed the old BBB. His old party polled only 162 votes! The BBB disbanded later that year.
Ganchev ran for president a third time in 2001 but finished 5th with only 3.4% of the popular vote. His new party disbanded soon after and Ganchev retired from his political career.
However, he founded a National Patriotic Union in 2004 and the new political entity participated in the 2005 Parliamentary election as part of the Coalition of the Rose, though it was unable to cross the 4% threshold.
In 2012, he returned to politics once again, reviving his National Patriotic Union.
He ran for president a fourth and final time in 2016 as the candidate from the Christian Social Union. He received 27,928 votes, or 0.73% of the total ballots.

Later career

Ganchev was the writer, producer & MC of "George in Action" that aired on Bulgarian TV from 2000 to 2005.

Personal life

Ganchev and his English wife Wendy had two daughters, Julia and Silvana, who started their own business in Los Angeles. Shortly since his return to Bulgaria following the collapse of the totalitarian system in 1989, Ganchev was in a long-term relationship with Valentina Shishkova, known as Shushi. His hobbies included horses, music and poetry. Ganchev formerly held US citizenship, which led to a few controversies regarding his eligibility to contest Bulgarian elections. He died on August 19, 2019, ten days before his 80th birthday.