There is such a party: the rise and fall of Trifonov and his movement in Bulgaria

Traditional political parties’ primary position as agents of representation has been challenged over the last two decades. Mair (2006) saw it coming, and recent research has only solidified this view. Developments on the demand side such as declining party membership, declining level of party activism, and higher levels of electoral volatility are paralleled, on the supply side, with decreased party distinctiveness on policy positions, less involvement with problematic issues, and elite-focused party activities in general (Mair, 2006 and 2013,; De Vries and Hobolt 2020, Hutter, Lorenzini, and Kriesi 2019). The “crisis of representation” has led, on the supply side, to the rise of new political actors within and without the party system such as populist parties, challenger parties, and movement parties (De Vries and Hobolt 2020, Hutter et al 2019, Bolleyer 2015, Degan-Krause and Haughton 2020). Movement parties are an interesting hybrid organization that can benefit from the grassroots power of the social movement to propel aspiring politicians to power almost unwittingly. One such case is the party There is Such a People in Bulgaria. It emerged as a social movement focuses on limiting the party-state linkages in the country and was led by the charismatic talk show leader Slavi Trifonov. The movement initiated the one and only Bulgarian referendum based on a citizens initiative in 2018. While the referendeum itself did not manage to gather enough votes to have an immediate impact on the party legislation, it was a clear signal that a new political force was in the making. By 2021, the party was registered and ready to battle. The paper proposed to explore the impact of this party on the Bulgarian party system in the turbulent 2021. During that year a triad of legislative elections were held in Bulgaria, and the second were won overwhelmingly by the party There is such a people. However, given its anti-political system stance and lack of experience and expertise, the party failed to form a political coalition, leading to another round of elections, in which the party came in fourth by halving its votes. The main argument of the paper, which will use campaign materials and media study to explore the behavior of the party in 2021, is that the failure of Trifonov led to a fundamental change in Bulgarian politics. In a game-changing move, the Socialist party, a pariah until July 2021, emerged as a respectable coalition partner by October2022, and the group of young politicians round the President of the country got the opportunity to organize and compete for power, while other alternatives disappeared. This allowed the coming to power of the most pro-reform minded and Western oriented coalition cabinet in the post 2001 political history of the country. Interestingly, 2022 will probably see the decline of There is such a people, and the disappearance from public life of its leader, Trifonov. However, the impact of the movement around him will go beyond the failed attempt to circumscribe political abuse of state resources.