The People's Liberal Party (, ''Narodnoliberalna partiya'', NLP) 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 ...

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 for itself organisation, before becoming the NLP the following year.Plamen Georgiev (2007
''The Bulgarian Political Culture''
V&R Unipress 2007, p65 It was the ruling party until Stambolov was dismissed from his post of Prime Minister by Prince Ferdinand in 1894, after which it was briefly banned. In the 1899 elections the party emerged as the second largest in the National Assembly with 19 of the 169 seats,

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 and during the same year it briefly merged with the Radoslavist Liberal Party to form the United Liberal Party, before demerging.RJ Crampton (2007) ''Bulgaria'', Oxford University Press, p451 The 1901 elections saw the party win 24 seats, although it was reduced to being the fourth largest party. In the elections the following year the NLP was reduced to just eight seats. The party fared badly until Balkan Wars of 1912–1913, winning eight seats in 1903, just one in 1908 and six in 1911. After the war the party ran in the next two elections in a coalition with the Liberal Party and the

Young Liberals Party The Young Liberals Party (, ''Mladoliberalna partiya'', MLP) was a political party in Bulgaria during the early 20th century. History The party was established in 1904 by Dimitar Tonchev after a group of Radoslavist Liberal Party members were e ...

; in the 1913 elections the NLP won 26 seats, making it the third largest party in the National Assembly, and went on to win 31 seats in the elections the following year.Nohlen & Stöver, p385 After

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

the party split into two factions, one led by Dobri Petkov and the other by Nikola Genadiev. In the 1919 elections the Petkov faction won two seats, whilst the Genadiev group won just one. The 1920 elections saw both factions double their seat tally. However, this was the last election contested by either faction.Nohlen & Stöver, pp373 Later in 1920 the Genadiev group merged with the Liberal Party (Radoslavists) and the

to form the National Liberal Party.

References

{{Authority control Defunct political parties in Bulgaria Liberal parties in Bulgaria Defunct liberal political parties Political parties established in 1886 Political parties disestablished in 1920 1886 establishments in Bulgaria