Nuevas Ideas (Spanish for "New Ideas"; abbreviated N or NI) is a Salvadoran political party. The party was founded on 25 October 2017 by Nayib Bukele, the then-mayor of San Salvador, and was registered by the Supreme Electoral Court on 21 August 2018. The party's current president is Xavier Zablah Bukele, a cousin of Bukele who has served since March 2020.
Although Nuevas Ideas was formed before the 2019 presidential election, it was not legally registered as a political party in time to run a candidate. As such, Bukele ran for president as a member of the Grand Alliance for National Unity (GANA), but he continued to use Nuevas Ideas branding throughout his campaign. He won the election with 53 percent of the vote and assumed office on 1 June 2019, becoming the first president in 30 years to not be a member of the country's two largest political parties: the Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA) or the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN). During the 2021 legislative election, Nuevas Ideas won a supermajority in the Legislative Assembly, winning 56 of 84 seats. The party also won 152 of the country's 262 municipalities and 14 of the country's 20 seats in the Central American Parliament (PARLACEN).
Ahead of the upcoming 2024 general election, Bukele has announced that he is running for re-election, and Nuevas Ideas leadership has stated that the party aims to win all 60 seats in the Legislative Assembly. In October 2022, the Nuevas Ideas-led Legislative Assembly passed a law to allow Salvadoran expatriates to vote in the election. In June 2023, it passed two proposals made by Bukele to reduce the number of legislative seats from 84 to 60 as well as reduce the number of municipalities from 262 to 44; both actions were described as a consolidation of power.
Nuevas Ideas is a big tent political party, rejecting both left and right-wing labels, and Bukele portrays the party as a Third Way. Meanwhile, Bukele himself has been described as a conservative and has been supported by conservatives abroad. The party's primary platform is combatting corruption. Nuevas Ideas has been described as a Bukelist political party, following Bukele's political ideology; according to Anna-Catherine Brigida and Mary Beth Sheridan of The Washington Post, the party is "based more on his [Bukele's] image and performance than on a traditional political ideology". Jonathan Blitzer of The New Yorker described Nuevas Ideas government officials as being united in their loyalty to Bukele. Óscar Picardo Joao of El Faro described the party as a cult of Bukele's personality. The party's primary colors are cyan and white, and its logo is a capital letter N, sometimes called "the N of Nayib" (""). The party, described as being populist, utilizes social media outlets to rally support among young voters and to spread pro-government and anti-opposition propaganda. As of 2019, the party has 507,633 members.
History
Establishment
On 10 October 2017, Nayib Bukele, the then-mayor of San Salvador, was expelled from the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN) by its ethics tribunal after he was accused of violating the party's principles and verbally attacking party official Xóchitl Marchelli. Five days after he was expelled from the party, Bukele expressed his intention to run for president in the upcoming 2019 presidential election as a member of a new political movement. On 25 October 2017, Bukele announced the establishment of a new political party, (Spanish for "New Ideas"), on social media such as Facebook and YouTube. Bukele stated that the party sought to remove the established political parties—particularly the FMLN and the Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA)—from their established power.
Bukele claimed that the political system would seek to hinder his presidential candidacy. Fernando Argíello Téllez, a magistrate of the Supreme Electoral Court (TSE), believed that it could be viable that the party would be registered in time for the 2019 presidential election, adding that it "does not have any restriction at this moment" (""). Regardless, the TSE asked the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice if Bukele being expelled from the FMLN, rather than resigning or legally changing political affiliation, would make him a defector and disqualify him from running for public office.