Sofia, April 1 (BTA) - This is the eighth and last piece in a
series of backgrounders that BTA's Daily News is running ahead
of the April 4 general elections in Bulgaria. The series covers
eight parties and coalitions which polls show to be certain or
likely, to various degrees, to win seats in the next Parliament:
 VMRO - Bulgarian National Movement; Bulgarian Socialist Party;
Movement for Rights and Freedoms; Democratic Bulgaria; Rise Up!
Thugs Out!; Patriotic Coalition - Volya and NFSB; GERB-UDF; Ima
Takuv Narod [There Is Such a People]. They are arranged
according to the number by which they will appear on the
ballots.

There Is Such a People

History

There Is Such a People (TISP) is a political party founded in
February 2020 by TV host and singer Slavi Trifonov. The name
must have been borrowed from the title of a 2017 LP of Trifonov
and his Ku-Ku Band. The party's leadership claims that TISP
resulted directly from a 2016 national referendum that was
initiated by a committee chaired by Trifonov. In the referendum,
 citizens were asked three questions: whether they favour the
election of MPs by an absolute majority in a two-round
majoritarian  system, the introduction of compulsory voting in
elections and referendums, and a reduction of the annual state
subsidy for political parties and coalitions to 1 lev per valid
vote received in the last parliamentary elections. The majority
of voters answered "Yes" to all three questions (71.95 per cent
to the first question, 61.89 per cent to the second, and 72.16
per cent to the third), and the 3,488,558 who cast ballots were
just 12,000 short of the minimum number required to oblige
Parliament to enact the proposals. The  referendum itself,
however, clearly showed that a group formed around a TV show had
 the political potential to launch initiatives on a national
scale.

Ideology

TISP's ideology has not been explored even at the level of
speculation - not because this is a new political entity but
because to-the-point information on the subject is practically
unavailable. This lack of information, along with the
months-long avoidance of media appearances by the party's
leadership, suggest a deliberate line of conduct. The TISP is
targeting the protest vote and is apparently reluctant to
identify with a particular ideology lest it put off potential
voters.

Platform, Policies, Positions

In practice, the party started to build its platform only after
entering the election race. TISP tends to formulate its ideas in
 rather general terms: "achieving progressive and resilient
economic development", "adequate management of funding sources
as fundamental to economic development", "effective
decentralization and rationalization of economic regional
models". These policy objectives are not matched by specific
actions for their attainment, with the exception of a plan to
introduce an income tax threshold. Bulgarians will not see any
unfamiliar findings and views in the party's platform, which
rather abounds in assessments that have been in public
circulation for decades. Practically all analysts note that the
general public is unaware of the TISP's ideas, except for a
fully majoritarian election system and halving the number of
MPs. This is acceptable to contestants relying on a protest
vote.

Support Base Profile

The TISP clearly draws its strength from the anti-establishment
electorate. This conclusion is invited by both the party's
rudimentary political platform and by an intense, even
aggressive focus on the element of protest: against the elites
of the transition, against the status quo, against the systemic
parties, against professional politicians, etc. The leaders of
There Is Such a People have amassed ample experience of
provocative showmanship. Quite a few Bulgarian analysts find
that the party has predominant interest among young people who
would otherwise not vote at all. Given this reasonable
supposition, the TISP's main rivals are not the systemic parties
 or the political status quo that it targets but the competitors
 for the protest vote (Rise Up! Thugs Out!, Democratic
Bulgaria), as well as the dark horses whose platforms spell out
vitriolic public criticism (such as We the Citizens, Citizens of
 the Protest, Movement of Non-Party Candidates, etc.) So far,
the TISP seems to be best placed in this group.

Tactics, Ambitions, Goals

The party has rushed to organize itself, build a power base and
formulate an official platform.


Campaign Messages

The party's messages are based on the principle of clear-cut
confrontation. The underlying thesis purposefully creates the
impression that Bulgaria is dying. It is taken for granted that
the country is badly governed, the elites are incompetent, the
institutions are dysfunctional, corruption is endemic, and
parties are thieving. A list of "The First Five Things We Will
Do" on the party's website seems concrete, but the substance of
the messages does not give - even to experts - an answer as to
how exactly the flaws identified can be addressed. Both the
messages and the campaign show that the party relies mostly or
almost entirely on the protest vote, discontent, outrage, and
insistence on change. Advertising these messages is one of the
strongest characteristics of the party's team. The messages are
radical and suggest something completely new that will change
everything and, moreover, quickly.

Personalities

Analysts are trying to infer the nature of the party from its
most prominent figures, considering that the TISP was formed too
 recently to have a history that could provide such information.
 Observers note that almost nothing is known publicly about the
key people in the party. When they come to the limelight, they
either mimic the party leader's style of speaking or sound even
more radically: TISP Deputy Chairman Toshko Yordanov has
referred to Bulgarian politicians as "rabble", "clique",
"power-holding simpletons". The large number of widely
unfamiliar names on the party's candidate lists comes as
convincing proof that the idea is to promote something
completely new, different from the so-called "status quo". Most
analysts expect the TISP leader to have absolute control over
the parliamentary group and its decisions. While the party's
cadres might be strange to the general public, its leader (his
actual name is Stanislav Todorov Trifonov) is widely and
consistently mediatized.  His audience is familiar with his
assessments on almost every conceivable aspect of social
development (culture, history, politics, international
relations, etc., including assessments of his own standing).
Named 2001 Man of the Year, he is a singer, talk show host,
showman, commentator, businessman, persona gratissima at
high-society events. Slavi's music tours have earned him
nationwide fame, his songs have been performed for decades, his
face is recognizable even to people who do not know the faces of
 any Bulgarian ministers. Although the leader of a new party,
Trifonov has been involved in socio-political strife back since
the 1990s, when he was in the forefront of the massive protests
against the Zhan Videnov Government. These conflicts only add to
 his popularity and build around him the scandalous halo of an
independently-minded person. In 2010, Prime Minister Boyko
Borissov scandalized the public when he said in a televised
interview that when his GERB Party was finding its feet,
Trifonov demanded "50 per cent influence in GERB" and to appoint
 every second minister. The allegation was denied, but
journalists keep bringing up the subject with the TISP. RY/DT,
LG