Bulgarian commentators had a field day after the Bulgarian Socialist Party had the television spot (1) for its 47th congress broadcast. From the fact that the tram was completely empty, except for the three characters featured in the spot of whom Sergei Stanishev was by far the youngest, to the old man grabbing his chest as if his heart were about to collapse, to the tram being a number two tram which has its final stop at the central graveyard in Sofia and the music used, which closely resembled the tune of На всеки километър (Na vseki Kilometar, At Every Milestone), a popular late 60s series about the uprising against Tsar Boris III, father of current coalition partner Simeon Saxe-Coburg, there was enough to make fun of.

The old commies had clearly gone off the tracks. Or had they? In the clip, Stanishev turns to Danailov and says "Не е като едно време, а?" ("It's not like it once was, eh?"), to which Danailov responds: "Прав си е, не е. Но мечтите и идеите си останаха все такива." ("You're right, it's not. But our dreams and ideas are still the same.")

Only a week earlier, a PR campaign directed by the organisation of young socialists, which aimed to establish a younger, more contemporary and dynamic image of the party, saw Stanishev register at what could best be described as a dating site for young party members.

A media statement by the young socialists claimed that Stanishev registered with the site in response to an invitation on a billboard placed in front of the Parliament building only days before. The billboard featured a photo of the winner of a beauty pageant held during last summer's gathering of young socialists.

Unless you believe in coincidence or poor co-ordination - both of which are normally abundantly present in this country - the message seems to be that, although not the same, things haven't really changed from how they "once" were.

Nineteen years after the changes, that's an eerie message to deliver in the run-up to next year's elections.

If the fact that the internet domains owned and controlled by the young socialists are all registered with non-existing postal addresses and phone numbers, with a free abv e-mail account as the only contact, are any indication of the kind of openness and transparency we can expect of future socialist party leaders, things obviously will not change for a very long time to come.

Long after the tram has turned into the woods from where it had come, a voice-over concludes: "Не е като едно време, но нещата останаха все такива." ("It's not as it once was, but things are still sort of the same.")

1. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYO2jrtQric