Most of the election runners entered the campaign preceding the November 30 parliamentary elections with electoral TV videos, posters, slogans and advertisements. By definition, the publicity is biased, but in the election campaign it represents the type of information that the voters accept most often. That’s why IPN decided to launch a series of analyses entitled “Electoral publicity interpreted honestly” by which to contribute to developing the political culture, analyzing neutrally the subtleties of the electoral advertisements. The election runners are analyzed in accordance with their position in ballots.
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In this article we will return to the Electoral Bloc “Moldova’s Choice – the Customs Union” because only now an electoral video clip of the bloc appeared online. We will analyze the bloc alongside the Party “Moldova’s Patriots” because both of them have small campaigns and are relatively similar ideologically.
Bloc of the three musketeers
The Electoral Bloc “Moldova’s Choice – the Customs Union” (BeAMUV) is a new-old project on the Moldovan political left. As name and participation form it is new, but two of the parties that formed it are older and with practically no success behind – the Party of Regions and the Social Democratic Party - alongside a newer party about which many do not know – the People’s Movement for the Customs Union. The bloc’s emblem is a kind of ‘V’ where a branch consists of a red line and a blue line that form Russia’s flag on a white background, while the other branch consists of the bloc’s name written in Russian. The emblem clearly and radically shows the bloc’s pro-Russian orientation, in case the name wasn’t sufficiently explicit. The emblem and name of the bloc give the impression that the bloc is in competition with such parties as Dodon’s Party of Socialists in terms of pro-Russian radicalism. In essence, the platform of this election runner is laconic and not at all special: the entry into the Customs Union is not only the main objective of their program, but it is also the main idea on which the whole program is based. It is a promise made yet by other parties too and the BeAMUV does not distinguish itself, not even by the dedication degree of this objective: the Socialists are at least as radical and have a wider platform that covers also the country’s internal affairs.
However, the idea of the three parties to form an electoral bloc is welcome and other extraparliamentary parties should follow such a model. The BeAMUV will get more votes than each of the three components would have gained separately, no matter whether it passes the election threshold or not. The bloc’s video clip exploits this thing from the very beginning – “Three political parties headed by Selin, Formuzal and Topolnitskii are now a united bloc.” Such a formulation shows the people that by forming this bloc, these parties are able to overcome their vainglory. Afterward, in the video it is said that the BeAMUV collected 200,000 signatures in favor of holding a referendum, has already held a plebiscite in Gagauzia and will not stop here. Normally, it’s not a good idea to promote oneself by presenting actions whose legality and constitutionality were questioned. But, taking into consideration the target voters of this bloc, this is something that can attract votes. In the end, it is said: “Moldova’s future is near a powerful Russia! Vote for the BeAMUV!”. Regretfully for the bloc, the message ‘near or alongside Russia’ was almost monopolized by Dodon, who was allowed by the Kremlin to use even the picture of Putin on Socialists’ electoral posters. Dodon’s campaign is simply more convincing and can easier attract pro-Russian voters. The BeAMUV does not have a free electoral niche that it could occupy and the resources and force needed to compete with other parties for the existing niches.
They are patriots, but you?
The Party “Moldova’s Patriots” is a radical left party and, as any extreme party, has many things in common with the opposite extreme. However, this party has a small electoral weight and never seriously threaded to enter Parliament. For many, it is rather a kind of exotic element of the Moldovan political landscape, while the participation in elections of the ‘patriots’ seems more like a routine for their survival as a political party. The party has a primitive Moldovenist message that is almost comical. This is more evident in its posters: a background mixing the imperial purple with the Communist red, the religious and belligerent emblem with Saint Gheorghe who kills the dragon, the face of the leader Mihail Garbuz and wording in ‘Moldovan’ written with letters of the Cyrillic alphabet -“I’m a patriot? But you?”. The impression is that the party does not take its potential voters seriously and does not seriously try to gain votes. It rather aims to promote certain values and uses the political arena for the purpose.
Note: This analysis refers strictly to the publicity of the election runners and does not aim to assess their quality. The bad products can have good publicity and vice versa, as the good products can have good publicity. Earlier, IPN made an analisys of the electoral publicity of the Democratic Party, which was published on November 6, of the Christian Democratic People’s Party, which was published on November 7, of the Liberal Democratic Party, which was published on November 10, of the Liberal Reformist Party, which was published on November 11, of the People’s Force Party, which was published on November 12, of the People’s Movement “Antimafie”, which was published on November 13, of the National Liberal Party, which was published on November 17, of the Party of Socialists, which was published on November 18, of the People’s Party, which was published on November 19, of the Communist Party, which was published on Noevmebr 21, of the Liberal Party, which was published on November 22, and of the Party “Renastere” and the Communist Reformist Party, which was published on November 24, and of the Party “Patria”, which was published on November 25.
Eugen Muravschi, IPN
