Order, Law and Justice (, abbreviated as ''RZS'') was a
conservative
Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy and ideology that seeks to promote and preserve traditional institutions, customs, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civiliza ...
political party
A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular area's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology, ...
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 ...
. Its main focus is on fighting crime and corruption.
It won the minimum ten seats in the
National Assembly
In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the repr ...
at the
2009 election, making it the smallest of the six parties in the legislature.
Later some of the deputies left the parliamentary group and it broke the minimum of ten, which inevitably made all parliamentary representatives of the party independent deputies.
It is led by
Yane Yanev, who has frequently revealed classified documents backing up his claims of corruption.
The party is close to the British
Conservative Party.
The logo of Order, Law and Justice is a blue and orange checkerboard pattern.
History
The party was founded by renaming and reforming the
National Association - Bulgarian Agrarian People's Union (NS-BZNS), which had been part of the
United Democratic Forces, decided on the fourth congress of the NS-BZNS in the end of 2005. Its main goal is fighting corruption.
In the
2007 European election, RZS won only 0.5% of the vote. By the time of the
2009 election, this had increased to 4.7%, with RZS claiming that only
electoral fraud
Electoral fraud, sometimes referred to as election manipulation, voter fraud, or vote rigging, involves illegal interference with the process of an election, either by increasing the vote share of a favored candidate, depressing the vote share o ...
had prevented it from receiving 10%, which would have given it two seats.
A month later, RZS took part in
elections to the
National Assembly
In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the repr ...
. Its parliamentary ticket was headed by
Atanas Semov, a law professor at the
University of Sofia. Its platform called for the formation of a stable center-right coalition that would exclude the
Bulgarian Socialist Party, a proactive campaign against political corruption, compulsory education until age 16, greater efforts to fight illiteracy, and the rejection of
ethnic nationalism
Ethnic nationalism, also known as ethnonationalism, is a form of nationalism wherein the nation and nationality are defined in terms of ethnicity, with emphasis on an ethnocentric (and in some cases an ethnostate/ethnocratic) approach to variou ...
in politics.
The election saw RZS win 4.13% of the vote: just clearing the 4%
threshold and entitling it to ten seats. The party supported the new centre-right government under
Boyko Borisov, but refused to sign an official declaration of support, after pressure from the
European Conservatives and Reformists European Conservatives and Reformists may refer to:
*European Conservatives and Reformists Party (ECR Party), a soft Eurosceptic European political party
*European Conservatives and Reformists Group
The European Conservatives and Reformists ...
over the involvement of
Attack.
One of RZS's MPs,
Mario Tagarinski, left the party on 9 December 2009, pushing the party below the minimum of ten MPs required to form an official
parliamentary group
A parliamentary group, parliamentary caucus or political group is a group consisting of members of different political party, political parties or independent politicians with similar ideologies. Some parliamentary systems allow smaller politic ...
.
Another MP,
Dimitar Choukarski, left on 11 March 2010, reducing it further to eight MPs.
The party nominated
Atanas Semov for president during the
2011
The year marked the start of a Arab Spring, series of protests and revolutions throughout the Arab world advocating for democracy, reform, and economic recovery, later leading to the depositions of world leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen ...
presidential election. He finished seventh with only 1.84% of the popular vote.
In the
2013
2013 was the first year since 1987 to contain four unique digits (a span of 26 years).
2013 was designated as:
*International Year of Water Cooperation
*International Year of Quinoa
Events
January
* January 5 – 2013 Craig, Alask ...
parliamentary election the party won only 1.67% of the popular vote and failed to win a seat.
Footnotes
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Order Law And Justice
Anti-corruption parties
Centre-right parties in Europe
Conservative parties in Bulgaria
Defunct conservative parties
National conservative parties
Nationalist parties in Bulgaria
Political parties established in 2005
2005 establishments in Bulgaria
European Conservatives and Reformists Party member parties
Right-wing parties in Europe
Right-wing populist parties
Populist parties
2013 disestablishments in Bulgaria
Political parties disestablished in 2013