The campaign launch for the June 7 elections for Bulgarian members of European Parliament on May 17, was more colourful than expected. After the intensive political winter season, party leaders headed to the country in an attempt to win Bulgarians’ attention amid surveys indicating widespread apathy.   

Most parties stuck to the traditional concerts that Bulgarians are accustomed to at campaign launches. But others used rather unorthodox events.  

Yellow rocks
An interesting case was that of the ruling coalition party National Movement for Stability and Progress (NMSP), led by former prime minister and Bulgarian monarch Simeon Saxe-Coburg. The latter is known for his reluctance to take part in anything other than events that require infinite self-possession and faultless manners as befits his royal background.

Hence it was interesting to see Saxe-Coburg arriving in the small town of Belogradchik in northwestern Bulgaria, which the party chose to mark the start of its campaign. Besides its leader the party had its three Cabinet ministers, MPs and European Commissioner for consumer rights protection Meglena Kouneva, standing as an MEP, in attendance.

NMSP chose the small town because it supported its bid to place the nearby rock formation in the new Seven Wonders of the World online poll initiated by a Swiss NGO. The party had laptops with wireless internet connection so that everyone could vote for, and support, the town. Besides paying the entrance fee for the cultural site, the party even provided complimentary ice cream in the party’s traditional yellow colour. The NMSP leader only addressed the crowd once: "You should have painted all the rocks in yellow too," Saxe-Coburg said.

No Turkey in the EU
NMSP was not the only party to choose a small town to launch its campaign. Ultra-nationalist Ataka’s choice, however, was more of a symbolic one, representative of a recurring theme in its message to the country. The party held a rally in the central town of Batak, the scene of brutal bloodshed when thousands of Bulgarians were slaughtered as part of the 1876 April uprising against the Ottoman Empire.

"Ataka’s MEPs will keep pushing for Turkey’s continued exclusion from the EU," Ataka leader Volen Siderov told several hundred supporters at the rally. And to lead the battle, Siderov placed his stepson Dimitar Stoyanov at the head of of Ataka’s election ticket, just as he had done in previous elections in 2007.    

Mice vs lions
Intentionally or not, Ahmed Dogan, leader of the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF), delivered a speech that must have been music to Ataka’s ears. At the launch of MRF’s campaign, a party traditionally representing Muslim Bulgarians, Dogan told the crowd in the small village of Pristoe in eastern Bulgaria that "we have no intention of moving abroad so whoever doesn’t want to live alongside us should move wherever they want".

He said that aspiring politicians started by challenging him and that such people should fight with their equals because "you can’t have a rat and a mouse fighting with tigers and lions". He ended with his favourite line from the past two years - that Bulgaria had become too small for MRF’s ambitions and that the party should do well at the EU level.     
 
Reload
Fans of Hollywood blockbuster the Matrix Reloaded would doubtless approve of the senior ruling coalition party, the Bulgarian Socialist Party’s (BSP), choice of "Reload" as one of its main campaign slogans. Dressed in red mechanics’ costumes (as red is the BSP colour), BSP’s youth movement members were sent on a tour around the country on a truck to explain why people should "reload" BSP MEPs for another five years.

The official launch, however, took place in the central town of Veliko Turnovo before an impressive crowd of close to 5000 people. Under intense heat, a crowd composed mostly of pensioners heard a lot of talk not about the EU, but about pensions. BSP leader and prime minister Sergei Stanishev dismissed rumours that pensions would not increase from July 1. "Not true", Stanishev said, while the DJ "warmed up" the crowd.

Those unable to address Stanishev directly at the venue were given the option of posting a question on his own website specifically launched for the elections at stanishev.bg where he promises to answer questions personally.