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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Storm from the east
Renato Usatyi dropped like a bomb in the Moldovan politics, at least at public level, and turned overnight from a dubious businessman into the leader of a party that is expected to pass the election threshold, as polls show. The swiftness by which he went up in the electoral preference rankings took many by surprise and is definitely unprecedented in Moldova, being comparable only with the rapid ascension of Dorin Chirtoaca in 2005 and 2007. In a way, Usatyi is exactly the opposite of Chirtoaca: the deputy chairman of the Liberal Party, who studied abroad, came young and clean and attracted the votes of the young people, the intellectuals and the supporters of the political rights who were confused after the Christian Democratic People’s Party formed a coalition with the Party of Communists (PCRM); Usatyi comes after being involved in suspicious businesses in Russia, with a reputation affected by scandals and attracts the votes of the supporters of the political left, of those who are poorer, less educated and elder, not necessarily the pensioners who are confused following the decline and splits witnessed by the PCRM.
Usatyi’s ascension is as spectacular, but not as surprising as some present it. The comparison with Dorin Chirtoaca already reveals the elements of a scenario that was successful in Moldova on the left segment and was now adjusted to the right segment. Given that many people are undecided, both as regards the participation in elections and the contender for which to vote, these are a considerable electoral base that can easily fuel rapid growths. There are people who weren’t covered by the electoral platforms of the other contenders, while Renato Usatyi came with something new: something from the insolence and churlishness of Ghimpu and Voronin, but in the person of a younger and new person without the ideological load of Ghimpu and Voronin. The Moldovans are tired of ideologies or ideological pretensions because they are associated with different parties that ruled the country or were in the opposition and almost always disappointed the people.
Usatyi comes free from such ideologies and without used political labels. He is the character with whom the ordinary people can identify themselves: he just wants to bring things in the country in order and to remove the ruling ‘bandits’. Such an association is also due to Usatyi’s plain and familiar language that contains no pompousness, neologisms and formality like the vocabulary of Lupu, Leanca or Hadarca.
“The power is in the truth” is a slogan that can attract people without carrying much significance. Usatyi himself turns this slogan upside down in one of the video clips that we will analyze below. Its sonority yet, even if it lacks substance, attracts and exploits the general distrust in the other politicians, who are considered ‘deceitful’. Their ‘power’ is false as it was won by false promises and lies, while Usatyi’s slogan assures the disappointed voters that the power is actually in the truth and Usatyi will make sure that it happens so.
Tragic nonchalance
The first video clip of Renato Usatyi is characterized by the nonchalance of Usatyi, who sits in a chair with one leg above the other, dressed casually and says in Russian “It’s not possible to be happy in a country where most of the people are unhappy”. This is a good statement that will definitely impress the voters who are tired of seeing politicians in expensive cars, who sue each other and then tell jokes to each other and laugh during breaks. Renato Usatyi maximally exploits the lack of tactic of the other politicians. He then says as nonchalantly, as if things are evident, that we need “to review the privatization process of the last 13 years, to institute the presumption of guiltiness for public servants, to revitalize vocational education and to do a correct fiscal reform within at most half a year”. His tone is evidently of a ‘wise’ person and that wisdom is very much like the wisdom with witch the ordinary people tackle things in the daily life. In the end, Renato Usatyi assures us that he will go till the end and will make everything possible and impossible for the people to live well in this country. Bombastic, tragic, but convincing, more convincing than the words of a party leader dressed formally, who assures the voters of the same things from the rostrum.
Compilation of aphorisms
The second video clip is practically a compilation of more memorable citations of Usatyi: the man builds a kind of folklore around him and presents an anthology of this folklore. Everything surely starts from the genesis: “Renato Usatyi was born in a family of teachers and my parents made sure that I got education”. The mentioning of the family and of the implicit gratefulness to the teachers-parents is designed to touch the voters and to capitalize on the admiration that a part of the population has for the teachers: these definitely educated their child well. A kind of apogee of Usatyi’s popularity follows - scenes from the concert given by singer Sofia Rotaru, who is loved by the Moldovans and who returned to Chisinau after a long period, at the invitation of Usatyi. It was a move whose impact is probably grater than that of most of the videos and posters of the other election runners.
The son of teachers and a kind of philanthropist, we then see Usatyi in the role of a commentator who makes sharp and humorous observations. “They dared to attempt to make the country green and then even blue”. The reference to the Liberal Democratic Party and the Democratic Party is transparent, while ‘blue’ in Russian also means ‘homosexual, which is an allusion to the nondiscrimination law. No matter how resourceful this comment is, it is not at all welcome as it exploits the conservatism and passive or active homophobia of more or less educated and tolerant strata.
Renato Usatyi reminds then the old principle “panem et circensis”, saying: “Things for the people must be done during four years, not only in the pre-electoral period”. It’s very simple: the promise of distraction, direct and pure. Regardless of the people’s opinions about how the country should be governed, Renato Usatyi exploits the natural wish to have fun. He made the voters look at the concerts financed by him not only as at instruments of propaganda, but also as at personal charity and a sign of his affiliation and attachment to the ordinary people.
At the end, Usatyi assures the voters that he will not betray his country and will not sell it – an allusion to the scandal concerning Banca de Economii and the Chisinau Airport and a defensive move to deny the accusations that he works for the Russians. Furthermore, it is a touching moment for many Moldovans to see a compatriot who became rich abroad and returns home to show his love for the country.
Simply concerts
The third video clip is again different from the ‘normal’ videos. It refers only to the concerts staged by Usatyi in Chisinau, Balti and Floresti at the beginning of November. It is impressive because he asks nothing from the viewers, but only invites them to the concert. In fact Usatyi managed to bring famous bands and singers from Russia not only to Chisinau, but also to other towns, especially in northern Moldova, where he banks to gain more votes. These concerts had a great impact as they widened access to such events for many people, including from villages, who could go and see them in the neighboring district.
Soldier and his puppy
The fourth video clip starts as follows: “Dear friends, today we go to the polls together with the Political Party “Patria”. We will vote against the power and disorder perpetuated in Moldova for over 20 years.” This is a mobilizing message and the music is slightly tragic, and Usatyi again speaks to us in an informal atmosphere, from his dining room. The cherry from the cake is a puppy that he holds in his arms – a banal and primitive, but efficient detail. The dog is nice and many of those watching the video will sympathize with it and, even if this sympathy will not be transferred automatically to Usatyi, the atmosphere is pleasant and comfortable and the politician’s message attracts indeed.
“They banned several of our political projects, but we must show to them that the power is in the truth”. So, Usatyi capitalizes on the Ministry of Justice’s refusal to register his previous parties, showing that nothing can stop him. “For the truth to come out there must be power and the power is you, the people of Moldova. I thank you for your trust, always yours Renato Usatyi”. The demagogy and populism of this tragic end would deserve criticism if it wasn’t so efficient. Not even the fact that Usatyi turns upside down his own slogan and utters a totalitarian and dangerous principle that “for the truth to come out there must be power”, which is if you have power, you will enjoy truth, does not affect its efficiency.
But the voters who are Renato Usatyi’s target will most probably not notice this contradiction as they would be moved by the puppy and the politician’s call that looks like the goodbye of a soldier going to war and does not know if he will return. The end is like the fighting son’s letter to his mother. This tragic ending fits the scenario of the fight between good and evil promoted by Usatyi, he being surely the good, while the government being the evil. It is a carefully planed message for the end of the campaign, which has an emotional and mobilizing impact.
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.
Eugen Muravschi, IPN
