
Dimitar Tonchev (7 November 1859-20 February 1937) was a Bulgarian politician and the founder of the Young Liberals Party.
Biography[]
Dimitar Tonchev was born in Kalofer, Ottoman Empire on 7 November 1859, and he became a lawyer in 1884 and later became a judge in Plovdiv and a lawyer in Sofia. From 1884 to 1886, he was a member of the Liberal Party, after which he joined the People's Liberal Party; from 1888 to 1891, he served as Minister of Justice. In 1891, he left the government and joined the Radoslavists, and he became a respected academic and writer. In 1904, he was expelled from the Radoslavists for opposing Vasil Radoslavov's leadership, and he went on to found the Young Liberals Party. His party later reconciled with the Radoslavists and the People's Liberal Party to form the "Liberal Concentration" coalition during World War I, and, on 4 November 1919, he was imprisoned after being blamed for losing the war. He was amnestied in 1924, and he was unable to be fully involved with the National Liberal Party, which distanced itself from Bulgaria's older and compromised liberals. Tonchev retired a year later and died in 1937.