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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“Moldova Noastra” reincarnated
The People’s Party of the Republic of Moldova (PPRM) is a new party registered in 2011. It is almost alike the Alliance “Moldova Noastra” (“Our Moldova”) (AMN). The similarities reside in the image and style, the platform and target public, and even in the leaders: Alexandru Oleinic and Valeriu Cosarciuc, who are former heavyweights of the AMN. The PPRM has an emblem in the style of the 1990s – an apple accompanied by a slogan in the same stylistic manner – “Vote for the apple!”. Its emblem and name show that the party is orientated more to the rural areas and the farmers.
The party’s logic resides in the fact that the disappearance of the AMN from the political arena left a void that the PPRM wants to fill. The problem is that the void left by the AMN is not so great as this party didn’t manage to pass the election threshold in 2010. This fact led to a merger with the Liberal Democratic Party. The voters of the AMN and its local bodies were then absorbed mainly by the Democratic Party and the Liberal Democratic Party. After these two parties have ruled for five years, the PPRM makes effort to profit from the fact that the people from rural areas are among those who are most disappointed by the current government and wants to attract the votes of the former supporters of the AMN.
Farmers’ disappointment
In the first video clip of the party, the protagonist is a villager gathering hay. “We work and work, but continue to live badly: it’s not normal! Because there is no order in the country,” he says. Probably 99% of the voters will agree with these words. The Moldovans consider themselves hardworking and are proud of this and they are frustrated because they do not see the results of their work. This fact is well exploited in the video. The music and place of the shooting create an appropriate atmosphere, while the actor plays the role well, realistically. He stops from gathering hay from time to time to speak. This is a small detail, but the fact that the director thought about it points to professionalism.
“I hoped that these lads will come and will change the situation. And what they did: they appropriated Banca de Economii, conceded the Airport... It’s not normal”. This sentence concentrates all the disappointments of those who voted for the Alliance for European Integration (AEI) in 2010, reminding of the then hopes and enthusiasm and the subsequent scandals. The protagonist is presented as a person who voted for the AEI. Thus, we conclude that this is the target public of the PPRM: the pro-European voters who support the center-right and who do not oppose changes.
“What about the pension? It was small and remained so. The local school was closed,” the villager says later. These are topical problems that are relevant mainly to the rural population, where there are many elderly people who depend on pensions, while the closure of the schools can accelerate the migration of young people and children from village to town. The PPRM joins thus the parties that use the education reform as a reason for criticizing the government.
The video becomes more tragic towards the end: the villager complains that he will now have to sell his calf, but will not get much money for him and he thus expresses his anger, pushing his pitchfork into the bay of hay. This scene is designed to create emotional resonance. The people must identify themselves with the character and feel that they are represented by the PPRM. The party’s leader Alexandru Oleinic appears next and utters their slogan “It’s time to give Moldova back to the people”. The slogan is opportune after the scene with the desperate villager: Moldova belongs to these hardworking and kind people, but somebody stole it.
Pasta and oil in exchange for votes for us
For a party that aims to attract first of all the votes of the farmers, the PPRM had great success online with its second video, where different representatives of (unnamed) parties offer electoral presents to a villager, asking him to vote for them. The party criticizes thus the parties that buy votes.
The video clip is educative. The neighbor comes and asks the protagonist “Will you again vote for those who give you pasta and oil?” The man answers “I’m not stupid. I will vote as I consider right given that they lied to us for 20 years.” The voters are thus encouraged to ignore such a kind of ‘electoral bribe’. The video provides a moral justification for accepting these presents without giving votes instead: the politicians deceived the population and it’s now time for the people to deceive the politicians.
Afterward, the protagonist takes out an apple and says that he will vote for the PPRM – “I will vote for the apple”. The ending is slightly funny, but it’s not clear if it was planned so: the neighbor takes the apple, looks at the camera, ignores the script and, addressing directly the viewers, says “I will also vote for the apple! Come on, Moldova!”. The humor is what makes the PPRM’s video different from other videos. Even if it does not provide many reasons for voting for the PPRM, the video generates sympathy and this sympathy can be later transferred at least partially to the party. The PPRM presents itself as a party of the people, which feels and thinks like them and understands their sorrows, but knows also to ‘grin and bear it’. However, the video does not generate intention to vote. It creates the preconditions and context to ‘convert’ voters, but one more step is needed for this to happen and the PPRM hasn’t yet taken this step.
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 analysis 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, and of the People’s Movement “Antimafie”, which was published on November 13. and of the National Liberal Party, which was published on November 17, and of the Party of Socialists, which was published on November 18.
Eugen Muravschi, IPN
