Bulgarian Agrarian National Union

Bulgarian Agrarian National Union Български земеделски народен съюз
LeaderIliya Zyumbilev
Founded30 December 1899
HeadquartersSofia
NewspaperЗемеделско знаме
Paramilitary wingOrange Guard (1919–23)
IdeologyAgrarianism
Historical:
Agrarian socialism
Political positionCentre
Historical:
Left-wing
ColoursOrange
National Assembly0 / 240
European Parliament0 / 17
Party flag
Website
www.bzns.bg

The Bulgarian Agrarian National Union (BANU), also translated to English as Bulgarian Agrarian People's Union (Bulgarian: Български земеделски народен съюз, Bŭlgarski Zemedelski Naroden Sayuz; BZNS), is a political party devoted to representing the causes of the Bulgarian peasantry. It was an agrarian movement and was most powerful between 1900 and 1923. Unlike the socialist movements of the early 20th century, it was devoted to questions concerning agriculture and farmers, rather than industry and factory workers. The BZNS, one of the first and most powerful of the agrarian parties in Eastern Europe, dominated Bulgarian politics during the beginning of the 20th century. It is also the only agrarian party in Europe that ever came to power with a majority government, rather than merely as part of a coalition. It is a founding member of the former International Agrarian Bureau.

History

An Agrarian Union was first organized in Bulgaria in 1899. It was to be a professional organization open only to peasants and was at first not meant to become a political party. The Union initially won widespread peasant support by mobilizing peasants throughout Bulgaria to peaceful demonstrations against the government's unfair taxation policies. Throughout the process, the Union remained politically unaligned. However, at its third congress, motivated by upcoming elections for the Bulgarian National Assembly, the Union leaders, who were not peasants themselves but a group of teachers, voted to become a political party. Thus, in 1901, the Agrarian Union became the Bulgarian Agrarian National Union, Bulgaria's official peasant party. BZNS candidates subsequently ran for positions in local and national elections.

Over the next twenty years, the BZNS remained a part of Bulgarian politics, but it began to falter for lack of a concrete ideological base. Aleksandar Stamboliyski saved the party from that plight by first publishing a series of theoretical articles on the peasants’ role in the state and history, and finally taking control of the BZNS party. In 1909 he wrote the book Political Parties or Estatist Organizations, which laid the foundations for the ideology of the BZNS. Stamboliyski rose through the ranks of the BZNS and by 1918 had become the leader of the party. World War I left Bulgaria in a state of severe social and economic crisis, and after a series of worker and peasant strikes and uprisings between 1918 and 1920, the Bulgarian army and all old political parties were essentially discredited. In 1920, by a combination of major popular support and some coercive methods, Stamboliyski was able to create a BZNS controlled government. The party also formed a militia, the Orange Guard.

The chief rival of Stamboliyski's BZNS was the Bulgarian Communist Party (BKP). After World War I, the BZNS and the BKP were the two leading parties in Bulgarian politics. Though the BZNS initially beat the Communist Party for political power, its authority quickly began to wane because, according to the communists, the BZNS wavered in its support between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie. Although most of them were not rich, peasants still participated in an old bourgeois economic system, which was, from the Communist point of view, destined to fail.

Though the BKP was always opposed to certain BZNS policies, most other factions became dissatisfied with Stamboliyski and the BZNS because of growing corruption within the party, and an increasingly oppressive rule over the Bulgarian people. On 9 June 1923 a bloc of military factions staged a coup d'état and deposed the Stamboliyski regime. Though the Communists ultimately gained control of the Bulgarian government, the BZNS remained in existence (as a member of the Fatherland Front), and participated in agricultural policy in Bulgaria until the fall of communism in 1989.

Ideological foundations

Stamboliyski believed that over time, new groups which were more attuned to modern political and economic needs would replace old political parties. He detailed this view in the 1909 book Political Parties or Estatist Organizations. In this vein, the BZNS was supposed to be more than a political party. It was meant to retain its original function as a professional organization for peasants, and also involve itself in politics in order to guarantee the protection of the peasant classes. The BZNS was a populist party, and as such supported the rights of the individual peasant over those of the corporation or large-scale landowner.

Stamboliyski believed that mechanized agriculture would never replace the individual peasant, but also that peasant agriculture need not be backward or inefficient. Therefore, he stressed the importance of education in peasant communities. He also emphasized the need for social welfare, and believed that if the state could distribute arable land equally to each family and lower the tax burden on the peasantry, the condition of the Bulgarian peasantry would naturally improve.

Policies

After Stamboliyski came to power, the BZNS organized campaigns for redistribution of land and rural education. These campaigns were largely successful, and the BZNS enjoyed widespread support in the immediate post-war period.

In the international sphere, the BZNS was strictly anti-imperialist in its policies. Stamboliyski thought that the new groups which would supposedly replace the old political parties had the possibility to become international organizations. He hoped for and encouraged an agrarian alliance that would spread outside of Bulgaria to the entire Balkan region. He did not pursue territorial expansion, and generally neglected the army. These policies contributed to the dissatisfaction that led to the overthrow of Stamboliyski and the BZNS in 1923.

Members of National Assembly

1919–1923: 200 MPs 1944–1990: 99 and 100 MPs 1990–2009: from 30 to 7 MPs since 2009: 1 MP

Wings

Chairmen since 1947 Bulgarian Agrarian People's Union

Deputy chairmen (and functional areas) since 1947

List of ministers of Bulgaria from BZNS 1919–2001

BZNS

Bulgarian Agrarian People's Union "Aleksandar Stamboliyski"

Bulgarian Agrarian People's Union - People's Union

Electoral results

Parliament

Election Votes % Seats +/-
1899 4,700 1.4% 0 / 169 Steady
1901 22,600 7.7% 12 / 164 Increase 12
1902 24,710 6.1% 12 / 189 Steady
1903 ? ?% 0 / 169 Decrease 12
1908 68,308 14.6% 19 / 203 Increase 19
1911 71,943 14.3% 4 / 213 Decrease 15
1913 113,761 21.2% 48 / 204 Increase 44
1914 147,143 19.3% 47 / 245 Decrease 1
1919 176,281 27.3% 77 / 236 Increase 30
1920 349,212 38.6% 110 / 229 Increase 33
April 1923 569,139 53.8% 212 / 245 Increase 102
November 1923 132,160 13.2% 19 / 247 Decrease 193
1927 285,758 24.8% 46 / 261 Increase 27
1931 626,553 48.4% 151 / 273 Increase 105
1938 Banned
1939 Banned
1945 ? ?% 94 / 276 Decrease 57
1949 Part of the Fatherland Front
1953 Part of the Fatherland Front
1957 Part of the Fatherland Front
1962 Part of the Fatherland Front
1966 Part of the Fatherland Front
1971 Part of the Fatherland Front
1976 Part of the Fatherland Front
1981 Part of the Fatherland Front
1986 Part of the Fatherland Front
1990 368,929 6.02% 16 / 400 Steady
1991 0 / 240 Decrease 16
1994 338,478 6.51% 18 / 240 Increase 18
1997 323,429 7.60% 19 / 240 Increase 1
2001 15,504 0.34% 0 / 240 Decrease 19
2005 Did not contest
2009 Did not contest
2013 7,715 0.22% 0 / 240 Steady
2014 291,806 8.89% 23 / 240 Increase 23
2017 107,407 3.06% 0 / 240 Decrease 23
Apr 2021 75,926 2.34% 0 / 240 Steady
Jul 2021 7,872 0.28% 0 / 240 Steady
Nov 2021 11,240 0.42% 0 / 240 Steady
2022 Did not contest
2023 Did not contest
  1. ^ Results of the alliance Popular Bloc.
  2. ^ Results of the alliance People's Union.
  3. ^ Results of the alliance Union for National Salvation.
  4. ^ a b Results of the alliance Reformist Bloc.
  5. ^ Results of the alliance Patriotic Coalition.
  6. ^ a b Results of the alliance National Union of the Right.

References

  1. ^ Nordsieck, Wolfram (2001). "Bulgaria". Parties and Elections in Europe. Archived from the original on 4 February 2005. Retrieved 14 May 2019.
  2. ^ Bulgarian Agrarian National Union, Britannica

External links