Tatyana Doncheva Toteva | |
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| Personal details | |
| Born | 28 January 1960 Tryavna, Bulgaria |
| Political party | Bulgarian Socialist Party (before 2009) Movement 21 (2010-present) |
| Profession | Politician, Jurist |
Tatyana Doncheva Toteva (Bulgarian: Татяна Дончева Тотева; born 28 January 1960) is a Bulgarian politician from the Movement 21 political party, of which she is the chairperson. She has been a member of four National Assemblies.[1] - the 38th, 39th, 40th and 45th.
Receiving an education in the field of legal studies (graduating from the juridical faculty of Sofia University), Doncheva has worked as a jurist, lawyer and prosecutor in Sofia. She is also a member of the Arbitration Commission of the Bulgarian Rhythmic Gymnastics Federation.[2] In 2005, she was a candidate (backed by BSP and a number of other parties) to become mayor of the capital city, losing out to Boyko Borisov in the second decisive electoral round of the municipal elections.[3] After being unable to stake a strong enough claim for the leadership position of BSP at the party congress in October 2009, Doncheva founded the PP "Movement 21" in April 2010, which does not constitute a political party, but represents the activism of citizens. Tatyana Doncheva ran in the 2016 Bulgarian Presidential Elections.[4]
She speaks English and Russian in addition to her native Bulgarian.[5]
Tatyana Doncheva is a vocal opponent against corruption and argues in favor of reforms in Bulgaria's justice system. Recently, she raised concern about the anti-constitutional amendments to Bulgaria's Code of Criminal Procedure which were passed by the Bulgarian Parliament in August 2017.[6] Doncheva was worried that the new changes create more possibilities for repression: for instance, one of the new provisions permits an investigation to be kept open indefinitely.[7]
Previously, she had argued that Bulgaria's Prosecution acts like "a shah from the Middle Ages."[8] She also warned that Bulgaria's Prosecutor General Sotir Tsatsarov abuses his office and attacks businessmen for personal reasons.[9] In the summer of 2017, Doncheva suspected that Tsatsarov was working towards extending his already excessive powers through negotiations behind the curtain.[10] Sotir Tsatsarov has recently been nominated for sanctions under the US Magnitsky Act.[11]