There Is Such a People

There Is Such a People Има такъв народ
Abbreviation	ITN
Leader	Slavi Trifonov
Founded	16 February 2020 (2020-02-16)
Headquarters	70th Building, Odrin St., Sofia
TV station	7/8 TV
Ideology	Populism[1][2][3] Social conservatism[4] Anti-corruption[5]
Political position	Big tent[6]
Colours	Light blue   Dark blue
National Assembly	25 / 240
European Parliament	0 / 17
Website
pp-itn.bg
Politics of Bulgaria Political parties Elections

There Is Such a People,^{[1][nb 1]} (Bulgarian: Има такъв народ, abbreviated ИТН, romanized: Ima takav narod, abbreviated ITN), is a populist political party in Bulgaria established by Bulgarian singer, TV host and politician Slavi Trifonov.^[7] Self-described as a "political product", the party is named after one of Trifonov's own musical albums.

History[]

Foundation[]

Trifonov originally attempted to found a political party under the name of "There is No Such State" (Bulgarian: Няма такава държава, romanized: Nyama takava darzhava). The application was turned down as the Supreme Court of Cassation of Bulgaria ruled that the party's proposed logo (a Bulgarian flag placed on top of an open human palm) violated the country's prohibition against the use of national symbols by political parties, causing him to change the name to "There Is Such a People" and adopt a new logo.^[8]

April 2021 election[]

The party fared well in its first-ever election, the April 2021 Bulgarian parliamentary election, finishing second in the polls behind GERB. Trifonov won a seat in the National Assembly, but stated that he had contracted COVID-19 and as such demanded that he be allowed to attend the swearing-in ceremony remotely, which he was allowed to do. However, even after his recovery Trifonov refused to ever attend or even visit the parliament. After GERB failed to form a government, as per the Bulgarian constitution, ITN was handed the mandate to do so by the Bulgarian President. The party insisted on proposing a single-party cabinet, offering a chess player with no political experience as prime minister-designate. The proposal received no support from parliament, and as such the party withdrew its proposition before the deadline. Shortly thereafter, it stated that it would not support any other government and would seek new elections. As no majority had formed around any political party, the parliament was dissolved and snap elections were called for two months later.^[9][10]

July 2021 election[]

During the election campaign period, the party essentially refused to campaign or issue promises, largely staying out of the political debate. This was initially shown to be a winning move, as the party experienced a surge in popularity.^[11][12] Having faced criticism for never attending parliamentary sessions during the previous convocation, Trifonov did not put himself forward as a candidate, stating that it was "not his place" and that his job would be to "take on responsibility" from outside the National Assembly.^[13] In the July 2021 parliamentary election, ITN polled narrowly ahead of GERB, thus winning a plurality, though not a majority, in the National Assembly. ITN attempted to convince three members of Bulgaria's apolitical caretaker cabinet to join ITN as political ministers, but all three refused, stating that ITN had demanded public sector cuts, a zero-point budget deficit and the privatisation of the Bulgarian Development Bank as policy - demands that the ministers did not agree with.^[14]

Plans for a coalition formed around opposition to GERB were quickly dashed, as ITN declared that it would not take part in any coalition and would only rule by itself, with a "government of experts" consisting only of ITN party members. This immediately triggered backlash both politically and among the broader population, both due to the usage of power politics and the fact that ITN's proposed "government of change" was staffed largely by retired ex-NDSV politicians with a poor reputation among Bulgarians.^[15] The party proposed one of its own members, Nikolay Vasilev, for the post of Prime Minister. The proposal proved controversial and did not attract any political support. Moreover, Trifonov was widely criticised for not taking part in political negotiations, instead only communicating through Facebook posts. Trifonov rejected the criticism, stating that he would continue communicating through the social network, but sacked Vasilev's candidacy and promised to "renovate" his cabinet proposal. Bulgaria's remaining political parties stated that they would refuse to comment on Facebook posts and would wait for a formal political announcement.^[16][17]

The party then designated another prime ministerial candidate, Plamen Nikolov, who was revealed to have been chosen at a TV casting "for politicians" and had no prior political experience, also proving to be an unpopular candidate.^[18][19] More controversy then emerged, after an Austrian publication challenged a claim placed on Nikolov's profile page of him being an alumnus of the University of Klagenfurt in Austria. According to the publication, Nikolov's name did not appear in the University's student or graduate databases, nor in the Austrian Library Association archive, which maintains all works published by students in the country.^[20] In response, Nikolov stated that he had not graduated from the university, but only defended a postgraduate research project there.^[21] ITN's proposed single-party government did not find support among any of Bulgaria's other political parties. Following this revelation, Trifonov accused Democratic Bulgaria and Stand Up.BG! We are coming! of "betrayal" and withdrew his proposition, stating that ITN would in turn vote against any and all other proposed governments, regardless of composition.^[22][23] The party's deputy further stated that those parties could be considered "political genders" if they then attempted to form a government.^[24][25] This caused a small-scale constitutional crisis, as Bulgarian law did not explicitly provide the opportunity for a party to withdraw a nomination it had already made before voting. Bulgaria's parliamentarians attempted to remedy this and set up a legal mechanism through which it can be done, which had to be approved through a simple majority. This attempt failed, as ITN and GERB refused to attend the session and vote on the withdrawal. Following a second vote, the withdrawal was finally accepted and the proposed government was withdrawn.^[26] The party then refused to support any other parliamentary party's government proposal, leading once again to a parliamentary deadlock and snap elections.^[27]

Ideology and platform[]

Political position[]

Trifonov initially refused to position his party as either left or right, neither liberal nor conservative. When pressed by a journalist during an interview, he revealed that he opposed both progressive taxation and the Istanbul Convention on Women's rights. When the journalist asked Trifonov if he thought that those positions were not right-wing, conservative opinions, Trifonov admitted that his party would be "more likely conservative".^[28] Trifonov also stated that he was personally a right-winger, also opining that "whatever is good for the EU and NATO is also good for our motherland".^[29] Later, ITN stated that it would not support any government proposed by the Bulgarian Socialist Party (which had been granted the mandate to do so by the Bulgarian President), regardless of composition, largely because ITN considered the BSP a left-wing party.^[30] Economically, the party considered the economics minister designated by Stefan Yanev's caretaker government as being "too leftist".^[31]

ITN has increasingly been identified with European nationalist movements.^[32]

Health, vaccines, and the COVID-19 pandemic[]

Deutsche Welle describes ITN as a party that could "turn anti-vax into state policy", stating that the party's parliamentary head, Toshko Yordanov, had supported and spread anti-vaccination conspiracy theories in parliament by claiming that vaccines do not reduce COVID-19 transmission.^[33] Trifonov rejected the accusation, stating that he would "not flirt with anti-vaxxers ... as that would be like flirting with death", adding that he himself is vaccinated against COVID-19.^[30] Despite this, ITN declared that recently adopted relaxations of COVID-19 measures for vaccinated individuals represented "discrimination" against non-vaccinated citizens and called for their abolition.^[34] Bulgaria's health minister, Stoycho Katsarov, defended the measures, stating that no additional lockdown measures had been introduced for those not vaccinated, merely relaxed for those that were.^[35] ITN also opposed an order by the health minister, which allowed local health authorities to impose additional lockdown measures and potentially require some schoolchildren to wear protective facemasks in in-person lessons during pandemic peaks.^[36] The party defined as "tyranny" an order by Sofia's Medical University that required students attending in-person lectures to either present vaccination certificates or recently conducted COVID-19 tests.^[37]

Policy platform[]

• Switching from a proportional representation system of voting to a constituency-based two-round system for national elections, and single transferable vote for EU and municipal council elections
• Halving the number of members in the National Assembly from 240 to 120
• Allowing remote electronic voting in elections and implementing elements of e-government
• Compulsory voting
• Introduction of some aspects of direct democracy, including direct elections of directors of the regional directorates and the heads of the regional departments of the Ministry of Interior, the Prosecutor General, and the Ombudsman
• Further integration with the European Union
• Further support to social security of families

Election results[]

National Assembly

Election	Votes	%	Seats	+/–	Government
Apr 2021	564,989	17.36 (#2)	51 / 240	New	Snap election
Jul 2021	657,824	24.08 (#1)	65 / 240	14	Snap election
Nov 2021	249,726	9.39 (#5)	25 / 240	40	Coalition

Notes[]

References[]