VMRO – Bulgarian National Movement

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.[14][2]

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.[15] Initially, it was not involved in Bulgarian politics, but after 1994 it became politically active and entered the Bulgarian 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.[16]

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[17] 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, such as child tax credits for working families, higher salaries and improved working conditions for the military,[18] and the 2017 Bulgaria-Macedonia Friendship Agreement.[19]

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[20] and VMRO called Bulgarian Patriots.[21] 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.[22] The "None of the Above" vote surpassed 4 percent, three times higher than in the previous election.

• The National Youth Committee of VMRO

Media related to IMRO – Bulgarian National Movement at Wikimedia Commons