The Liberal Party (, ''Liberalna partiya'', LP) was a political party in

Bulgaria Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern portion of the Balkans directly south of the Danube river and west of the Black Sea. Bulgaria is bordered by Greece and Turkey t ...

and the main force in domestic politics between independence in 1878 and the mid-1880s when it dissolved into several different factions.

History

The party was established after the Constituent Assembly elections in January 1879 by Petko Karavelov,

Petko Slaveykov Petko Rachov Slaveykov () (17 November 1827 OS – 1 July 1895 OS ) was a Bulgarian poet, publicist, politician and folklorist. Biography Early years and educational activity Slaveykov was born in Tarnovo to the family of the coppersmith R ...

and

Dragan Tsankov Dragan Kiriakov Tsankov () (9 November 1828 – 24 March 1911) was a Bulgarian politician and the first Liberal Party Prime Minister of the country. He was born in Svishtov. Tsankov was initially a civil servant in the administration of the ...

.Platform
Democratic Party In the

parliamentary elections A general election is an electoral process to choose most or all members of a governing body at the same time. They are distinct from by-elections, which fill individual seats that have become vacant between general elections. General elections ...

in September and October of that year the party won 140 of the 170 seats in the National Assembly.

Dieter Nohlen Dieter Nohlen (born 6 November 1939) is a German academic and political scientist. He currently holds the position of Emeritus Professor of Political Science in the Faculty of Economic and Social Sciences of the University of Heidelberg. An ex ...

& Philip Stöver (2010) ''Elections in Europe: A data handbook'', p384 The elections the following year saw the Liberal Party maintain its majority in the Assembly, winning 103 of the 162 seats."Bulgaria", ''The Times'', 6 April 1880 The 1884 elections saw it win 100 of the 171 seats. During the mid-late 1880s the party gradually dissolved, with several new parties later established by its former members, including the

Progressive Liberal Party The Progressive Liberal Party (abbreviated PLP) is a populist and social liberal party in the Bahamas. Philip Davis is the leader of the party. History The PLP was founded in 1953 by William Cartwright, Cyril Stevenson, and Henry Milton ...

(1884), the

People's Liberal Party The People's Liberal Party (, ''Narodnoliberalna partiya'', NLP) was a political party in Bulgaria. History One of the four factions to emerge from the old Liberal Party, the party was established by Stefan Stambolov in 1886 as the Bulgaria fo ...

(1886) and the Radoslavist Liberal Party (1887). The Liberal Party was briefly resurrected in the 1890s, winning three seats in the 1894 elections,"The Bulgarian Elections", ''The Times'', 25 September 1894 before becoming the Democratic Party in 1896.

References

{{Authority control Defunct political parties in Bulgaria Liberal parties in Bulgaria Political parties established in 1879 Political parties disestablished in 1896 1879 establishments in Bulgaria