[ The Democratic Party vice president, Vlad Plahotniuc, although a new face in politics, took on a great role during the local elections, that of party’s campaign coordinator. In the following interview, you can find out what he thinks of the election results, the work of campaign staffs, his party’s goals and those of newly elected local authorities.]
[ - Mister Plahotniuc, are you happy with PDM’s results? Who has the bigger merit: the campaign staff or the candidates in each locality?]
- This is an almost traditional question and the answer won’t be too original either. But I understand the subtext and I’ll try to make it clear.
I’m obviously happy with our good results and I sincerely congratulate my colleagues who have been elected. And yes, I’m unhappy with the poor results, but I still congratulate even those PDM candidates who have not won. This was a lesson and a step forward for all of us. There are many who have narrowly lost in the second round, but his means they improved the party’s image in their locality and set a basis for future growth. In other cases, such as big municipalities, our candidates, despite their quality and good campaign, suffered the consequences of an unprecedented polarization of voters.
Local elections are special because it is said that voters choose persons, not parties. However, things were a bit more complicated during this campaign and sometimes proved the opposite. I want to stress that the party and central staff offered maximum and equal support for all PDM candidates. There where other circumstances were favorable as well, we achieved success, but this didn’t happen everywhere.
People look at the statistics and wonder why the Democratic Party registered the biggest growth among AIE parties since the last parliamentary elections. This is also PDM’s best ever result in local elections. We have 220 mayors, 226 level two councilors and 2263 level one councilors. These figures may be even greater as some independent mayors and councilors expressed their wish to join PDM. I like numbers, which are an irrefutable argument, but I’m more interested in PDM’s capacity to develop and improve its political tools. We need them to have a constant political and electoral result and to be able to fulfill our promises to people as elected officials and as a party. I’m a quite experienced manager trying to apply his knowledge in politics and I can say we have achieved some success, but we have more to work, to learn and to use successful models and practices.
[ - Was it a tough decision to assume the task of coordinating the campaign less than year since you joined the Democratic Party and entered politics?]
- Actually, it was a natural decision, without hesitation. I’m a man of action and of the team. If I’m involved in a project, I’m totally dedicated. Supporting and then joining the Democratic Party is what changed my life over the last years. When my colleagues offered me this role, expressing their confidence I was up to the task, everything was decided. I relied on my management experience, on that of the last parliamentary elections and on my colleagues’ vast political knowledge.
An encouraging sign is that some political rivals, after the beginning of the campaign, were disturbed and denigrated my image again. This means that, new as I am, I still manage to upset veterans from other parties. It’s a matter of principle that these attacks are answered through PDM’s electoral results. This is one of the little satisfactions of a campaign coordinator.
[ - How did you develop the strategy, the tactic, the campaign message, as it’s difficult to combine general elements with the local specific from each locality? Did you use experts from abroad?]
- It may not seem too impressive, but I think that the philosophy of our staff and candidates mattered a lot. The Democratic Party had a campaign focused on success: bold, with modern branding, oriented towards the daily needs of ordinary people from Moldova’s towns and villages. It’s indeed easier to employ specialized teams who can do everything you mentioned in the question, but we relied on our own resources and local consulting, which managed to expeditiously develop and implement the main elements of the campaign.
The campaign was thought in detail, from involving the PDM leader as image support for our candidates to micro-campaigns in each locality, using the local press and communication channels. We had to revert to the party logo with party’s name on it, as we had thousands of candidates through the whole country. Mister Lupu, however, was the protagonist of our TV spots, with the first one having a powerful message. This time, we focused on the outdoor as well, with billboards and posters advertising our candidates.
It was hard to choose a new slogan, powerful, easy to remember and which could be used in various contexts. It’s time!- I think this slogan meets the expectations of people who want to see real progress in country’s development, in solving daily problems. Although there are 20 years since Moldova became independent, the situation in many domains looks as if we had no time so seriously take care of it. This slogan means that people won’t wait longer for us, local and central administration, to show results. We’ve been given a chance and we have to meet these expectations. Otherwise, time will pass in vain and we’ll all be on the losing side. If you want it, this is also an appeal for responsibility to the elected ones.
[Irina Gisca]
Taken from http://www.timpul.md/articol/vlad-plahotniuc-a-condus-staff-ul-electoral-al-pdm-campania-noastra-s-a-axat-pe-succes-24568.html
