When typed in Google, the definition for “political campaign” reads: “Any political campaign is made up of three elements. The modern mnemonic is message, money, and the foot soldiers loyal to the cause. Large modern campaigns use all three of the above components to create a successful strategy for victory.”
Typically for Bulgaria, the election campaigns for Sofia mayor showed some deviation from this three-element formula.
A week before the October 28 municipal elections, Sofia candidates chose different approaches to Sofians’ hearts, presenting all aspects of Bulgarian political culture. All candidates went into “war” targeting current Sofia mayor and candidate for a second term Boiko Borissov. The best example of this was Slavi Binev, nominee of the ultra-nationalist Ataka party. Binev’s entire campaign was focused on attacking Borissov, leaving no doubt that for Binev the fight was personal. Apparently he had no regard for what most political scientists say, that emotions hardly ever have a place in politics. Famous for his nightclubs, bars and striptease bar, business ventures that he now claims are behind him, Binev entered big politics on May 22 when he won a seat in the European Parliament as an Ataka candidate.
Binev’s personal animosity for Borissov seemed so strong that he did not hesitate to say that were Borissov were to reach the second round and Binev did not, Binev’s support would go to the other candidate.
In terms of the main political message, Binev appeared to be a fan of a certain reality TV show. Binev’s message to Sofians was “pulna promyana” (a total change). “Pulna promyana” is how the name of the TV show Extreme Makeover is translated into Bulgarian. Naturally Binev’s “total change”, according to him meant a change from what Borissov has done for the past two years. At first sight, using the name of a reality show in a political message might seem strange, but the profile of Ataka’s supporters shows another picture.
In the past two elections, the presidential elections in 2006 and the MEP elections in May 2007, most people who voted for Ataka, according to polling agencies, were in their 50s, 60s and 70s as well as the young teenage generation. Such people, Ataka’s advisers must have thought, spend a lot of time watching TV shows, making the Binev campaign message an easy fit. Other surveys, however, suggest that people who devote so much time to watching TV usually tend to stay home, which could be bad for Binev given that going physically to the ballot box is essential for every voting procedure.
In terms of the money, Binev is probably the first Bulgarian politician who vowed to finance his campaign entirely with his own funds. With his daily TV spots on the three national television channels, it seemed that Binev had found a good place for his money. As for the “the foot soldiers loyal to the cause” Ataka has plenty to offer to Binev. Young, tall and strong boys could have been seen everywhere around Binev, especially during his visits in Roma neighbourhoods. After all Binev’s four priorities included solving the refuse problem, developing remote Sofia neighbourhoods, transport issues and, last but not least, the Roma issue.
Martin Zaimov, the joint candidate of two right-wing parties, who Mediana polling agency puts third after Borissov and the Bulgarian Socialist Party’s candidate Brigo Asparouhov, met to highest extent the three-element formula. Zaimov’s message was plain and simple with a slight personal flavour. “I love Sofia” and “Martin for mayor” could be seen on cards adorned with a blue heart almost everywhere in Sofia. From the start Zaimov tried to establish a close contact with Sofians.
All his TV spots talked about “Martin” as if he was the neighbour. Bicycle tours, “accidental” meetings with Sofians in parks and squares, Martin had everything well planned. Once in a while he could be seen on the streets asking people about their views and problems. For more than three weeks no one was safe from being ambushed by Zaimov, even in restaurants.
This style of “door-to-door” campaigning indeed was something new for Bulgaria and Zaimov can be thanked for that. Holding to his open style, Zaimov said that the money for his well funded campaign came from about 50 companies and the two parties behind him, the Union for Democratic Forces (UDF) and the Democrats for a Strong Bulgaria (DSB). Unfortunately the list of the companies is still unknown although Zaimov promised to put it online. In the end, however, it is the number of votes that matter, and again according to Mediana, Zaimov’s “loyal soldiers” will prove fewer than those of Borissov and Asparouhov. The tensions between the UDF and the DSB most likely would ruin Zaimov, Kolyo Kolev from Mediana told Focus news agency on October 23. The two parties simply could not decide whose candidate Zaimov was. This has left their supporters filled with suspicions about Zaimov’s loyalty to either of the two parties. Indeed half of Zaimov’s efforts went to persuading Sofians that he was the true right-wing candidate and no one else.
Brigo Asparouhov had no such problems. Again according to Kolev, the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) will have its Sofia supporters up and running for the elections. It had nothing to do with Asparouhov’s personality. The BSP simply wanted to avoid what happened at the MEP elections in May when more than half of the BSP supporters in Sofia did not vote, consigning the party to second place. This could be one reason why Asparouhov’s campaign seemed so calm and boring at moments. It was only the personal quarrel between Asparouhov and Borissov that made a difference. Following Binev’s pattern, Asparouhov concentrated only on Borissov. Unlike Binev, however, Asparouhov had a different goal. Through his entire campaign Asparouhov hardly ever mentioned the name of Zaimov or any of other candidat. He wanted to make it clear that Borissov was his sole enemy and neither of the other candidates mattered.
As for the message to Sofians, Asparouhov’s one was as long as the 100 years of BSP history: “real solutions to the your real problems”.
In terms of funding, when asked several times, Asparouhov simply said that the man responsible for this was the leader of BSP Sofia unit Roumen Ovcharov who resigned as minister of Economy and Energy this May after a corruption scandal. Nothing was proved.
The behaviour of current Sofia mayor Borissov was the most surprising thing this time around. Known for his affection for media attention and publicity, Borissov took a different approach. He simply disappeared. The law says that a mayor standing for a second term should take a month’s leave before the elections to avoid any conflict of interest. Borissov followed this provision by the book. Instead of going from one neighbourhood to another, Borissov went on trips around the country. With all polling agencies predicting a second-round victory for him in Sofia, Borissov concentrated on helping the candidates of his Citizens for the European Development of Bulgaria (GERB) in other towns and villages. This, of course, made Borissov an easy target for his Sofia opponents who aptly pointed out that a candidate for Sofia mayor had no business travelling around Bulgaria when the campaign for Sofia was at its highest peak.
Disregarding their comments, Borissov continued his trips showing little sympathy for calls for face-to-face public debates. The only time he agreed to face an opponent was when he confronted Asparouhov on commercial national TV channel bTV. He refused to meet Zaimov, although Zaimov challenged him several times, which was interpreted by most political scientists as Borissov’s desire to define himself as the sole right-wing candidate. His message for Sofians was short and simple: “I guarantee”. What exactly was he guaranteeing no one knew, but yet again no one asked him to explain, the same way as when Borissov won the elections in 2005. If one trusts polling agencies, this will work for him again this year.
The election campaigns in Sofia this year may be remembered for the lack of massive election rallies, concerts and demonstrations. Candidates and the parties behind them decided not to spend a lot of money in the first year of Bulgaria’s EU membership, as inflation reaches record high levels. Instead, candidates bet on personal contact, as in Zaimov’s case, or the lack of any contact, as Borissov did. All the others, such as Antonia Purvanova from the National Movement for Stability and Progress, Juliana Doncheva from Suyuz BG coalition and Konstantin “Titi” Papazov from the Democratic Party, counted on the occasional news conference and TV appearances, which left few doubts about what they were actually fighting for: getting as many people as they could into the municipal council, as opposed to winning the mayoral elections themselves.
