VMRO – Bulgarian National Movement



VMRO – Bulgarian National Movement (ВМРО – Българско Национално Движение), commonly known as VMRO, is a national conservative political party in Bulgaria.

History
The VMRO acronym is derived from the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization, a historic Bulgarian-led revolutionary political organization in the Macedonia and Thrace regions of the Ottoman Empire, which the party claims as its predecessor.

At the time of its founding in 1989, the organization's name was VMRO-Union of Macedonian Associations. At the fourth congress in 1997, VMRO-UMA dropped the UMA from its name. Initially, it was not involved in Bulgarian politics, but after 1994 it became politically active, registered as a party in 1996, and entered parliament in 1997 as a member of the United Democratic Forces coalition. Renamed VMRO-Bulgarian National Movement in 1998, the organization gradually transformed into a right-wing populist party.

For the 2001 Bulgarian parliamentary election, VMRO signed a coalition agreement with the George's Day Movement. The right-wing project received 3.63 percent of the vote, just shy of the 4.00 percent threshold.

During the following parliamentary election in 2005, the party was able to enter parliament, this time as a member of the Bulgarian People's Union.

VMRO was denied registration for the 2009 parliamentary election.

In the 2011 race for president, then-party leader Krasimir Karakachanov was nominated as a candidate. He received about one percent support.

For the May 2014 European Parliament election, the party was part of "Bulgaria Without Censorship", which included Bulgaria Without Censorship, VMRO, People's Agricultural Union, and George's Day Movement. The coalition received 10.66 percent of the vote and won two seats in the European Parliament. MEPs elected from the coalition included VMRO's vice-chairman Angel Djambazki and BWC leader Nikolay Barekov.

In August 2014, a coalition agreement between the NFSB and VMRO called Patriotic Front was signed for the upcoming parliamentary elections with the official goal of "a revival of the Bulgarian economy, a fight against monopolies, achieving modern education and healthcare, and a fair and uncorrupt judiciary." The signing of a coalition agreement between VMRO and NFSB marked the end of the BWC-VMRO partnership. Patriotic Front received 7.28 percent of the vote, winning 19 seats in the National Assembly.

In the 2016 presidential election, party leader Karakachanov threw his hat in the ring again, this time finishing third with over 14 percent of the vote.

VMRO's highest political achievement to date came following the 2017 parliamentary election. After the United Patriots coalition, of which VMRO was a member, won almost 10 percent of the vote, it formed a government with GERB, where Karakachanov became Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defence while Neno Dimov was given the Ministry of the Environment.

Despite protests against the government, it completed its full four-year mandate, during which VMRO was credited with a number of achievements, including child tax credits for working families, higher salaries and improved working conditions for the military, and the 2017 Bulgaria-Macedonia Friendship Agreement.

In addition to the unprecedented success at the national level, at the 2019 European Parliament election, VMRO again surpassed expectations by sending two MEPs to the EU Parliament: Angel Djambazki and film director and screenwriter Andrei Slabakov, an unexpected winner who despite not being a party member was elected by preferential vote.

Later that year, at the local elections, the party surpassed expectations yet again by having four candidates elected to the Sofia City Council, one of them, Carlos Contrera, becoming chairman of the Transportation Committee.

In the upcoming 2021 parliamentary election, VMRO for the first time decided to go it alone. The party received 3.59 percent of the vote and was left out of Parliament.

Ahead of the second 2021 parliamentary election, Volya formed an electoral alliance with the NFSB and VMRO called Bulgarian Patriots. That alliance won fewer votes than VMRO secured as a standalone party in the preceding election and was quickly dissolved.

For the third 2021 parliamentary election, VMRO was on its own again, receiving one percent of the vote.

At the next party congress in February 2022, VMRO leader Karakachanov submitted his resignation after more than 30 years at the helm. He was replaced by three co-chairmen: Angel Djambazki, Iskren Veselinov, and Alexander Sidi.

In the following parliamentary election later that year, VMRO ran as a standalone perty again and received less than one percent of the vote.

The party announced that it would not be participating in the 2023 parliamentary election, expecting that the election would yield a similar result to the ones before and accused the other parties of driving Bulgaria into an economic and political crisis. Instead, VMRO called on its supporters to boycott the vote. The "None of the Above" vote surpassed 4 percent, three times higher than in the previous election.

On 17 February 2024, Krasimir Karakachanov was re-elected as party chairman by an extraordinary congress, overcoming an attempt by MEP Angel Dzhambanski to take the helm.

In the combined parliamentary election on 9 June 2024, VMRO received just under one percent of the vote for National Assembly and just over 2 percent for European Parliament.

Identity
VMRO describes itself as a conservative and patriotic party based on modern nationalism. It defines itself as leading a "pan-Bulgarian national movement" aiming at "spiritual unity of the Bulgarian nation".

It is known as a strongly nationalist and Orthodox Christian party which claims to continue the mission of the historic IMRO and strives for the recognition of the Bulgarian ethnicity and language of the Slavic population of North Macedonia.

Economic policy
VMRO supports the promotion of economic freedom via lower taxes and a lighter administrative burden on businesses, in addition to tax incentives for large investments, with the goal of fostering a knowledge-based economy.

Social issues
VMRO is staunchly socially conservative and adamantly opposes same-sex marriage, even going as far as to propose additional amendments to Bulgaria's constitution to preemptively block any gay marriage law from being passed in the future.

During the 2020–2021 Bulgarian protests, VMRO attempted to put the topic of gender (through the anti-LGBT trope of gender ideology) at the forefront over the COVID-19 pandemic in Bulgaria and the protests themselves in an attempt to increase its political legitimacy.

Party leaders have also expressed the opinion that the protests were organized by "a few Sorosoidite NGOs and extra-parliamentary political parties hungry for power", claiming that the goal of the protests, in his view, was to "bring about gay marriage" and "create a gender republic", which they entirely disagreed with.

Similarly, it also proposed constitutional amendments that would ban people without a certain level of academic qualifications from voting in elections or referendums, as well as amendments that would bring back mandatory conscription for all males.

Minorities
VMRO expresses an antiziganist worldview, proposing a "solution to the problem of unsocialized gypsie groups", which included a destruction of Romani ghettoes, penal labour, restriction of social benefits and limiting births underage Romani. Likewise, it is critical of Bulgarian Turks and unwelcoming of Islam in Bulgaria, calling on the government to "stop the sounds of terror coming from minarets".

Foreign policy
VMRO supports Bulgaria's membership of NATO and the European Union. It believes Bulgaria has its place within the EU, but envisions the union as a "Europe of Nations" rather than one giant whole. It calls for a fundamental change of direction and a "conservative wave" and argues against the "Liberal utopia" ideas that dominate the block, which the party cites as gender ideology, mass migration, and "colonial neoliberalism."

The party also opposes the accession of Turkey to the European Union and wants to reform or end many of the EU's migration policies to "prevent Brussels from committing suicide in Europe." VMRO states that Bulgaria should see international alliances as "civilizational" and a means of protecting Western Christian identity, European solidarity, and Bulgaria's interests.

Although the party condemned the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, former leader Karakachanov has criticised military aid to Ukraine, expressing his belief that there is no military solution to the conflict.