Former defence minister Nikolai Svinarov was elected chairman of Bulgarian New Democracy (BND) party on May 11 2008 at the founding congress in the National Palace of Culture, which created Bulgaria's newest political party.

Talking to Bulgarian media after the vote, Svinarov said that BND was ready to join a wide right-wing coalition that was ready to rule the country after next years' general elections.

Svinarov referred to the right-wing parties already in Parliament, as well as to Sofia mayor Boyko Borissov's party the Citizens for the European Development of Bulgaria (abbreviated as GERB in Bulgarian).

The former defence minister in the cabinet of Simeon Saxe-Coburg was elected unanimously as was the rest of BND's central executive council, among them Borislav Ralchev, Lidia Shouleva, Borislav Velikov, Vladimir Donchev and Plamen Panyotov. All of them are current members of Parliament.

Delegates decided that BND was going to work for raising the living standard of Bulgarians, strengthening the role of the civil society, individual freedom, equal opportunities, tolerance and national identity in unified Europe. All members of the party will be subject to a monthly fee of one lev.

The party is founded six months after 17 MPs left one of the partners in the ruling coalition the National Movement for Stability and Progress.

On December 5 2007, Ralchev, who was elected as floor leader of BND group in Parliament, said they've left the NMSP because of  “the undemocratic and even repressive methods which the NMSP has been using lately”.  Svinarov, Shouleva and Panayotov have been ministers in NMSP's cabinet in 2001/05.
 
All of them have criticised NMSP's decision to stay in the ruling coalition together with Bulgarian Socialist Party and the Movement for Rights and Freedoms. As of January 18 2008, BND became the biggest opposition group in Parliament. BND proclaimed itself as a right-wing party and asked for close cooperation with the other right-wing oppositional parties but so far has received little, if any support, from them.