SOON after the start of the official campaign for the general elections on June 25, the major political parties launched an all-out all-media campaign including video clips, radio clips, posters, billboards and internet advertising.
On their websites, apart from the standard statements, promises, photo galleries and slogans, there are party posters, mp3 files of campaign songs, and on some of the sites, video files containing campaign TV clips.
On their website, the left-wing Coalition for Bulgaria has posted their remixes of old communist songs, with which Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) leader Sergei Stanishev is hoping to conquer dance floors across the country.
On its website, the youth organisation of the coalition has announced a competition for a remix of a folklore or patriotic song, whose main goal, according to the organisers, is to promote Bulgaria’s national culture and to support young musicians. The first prize is two professional CD players and DJ mixing desk, second prize two professional CD players and third prize a DJ mixing desk.
The competition theme is also present on the website of the United Democratic Forces (UtDF).
There, the leader of one of the coalition members, the Democratic Party, Alexander Pramatarski, has announced a competition for an essay on Young People and the Challenges of Politics.
The prizes have two elements – money and books. First prize is 150 leva and the three-volume memoirs of Margaret Thatcher, the second prize 120 leva and Henry Kissinger’s Diplomacy, and the third prize 90 leva and Charles Williams’ Adenauer.
The UtDF site also features downloadable files with D2’s campaign song Bulgaria - That’s You and the UtDF TV clip, in which Prime Minister Simeon Saxe-Coburg morphs into BSP leader Stanishev.
The website of the Evroroma movement sports the chalga singers Azis, who is the Evroroma candidate in Varna, and Anelia, who urges people to cross out their problems by making their cross in box 10 on the integral ballot.
In terms of banners on various non-political websites, the “hedgehogs” from Novoto Vreme are the most ubiquitous, with ads on the website of the Focus news agency, the Netinfo news site, the Gyuvetch web portal and the ABV e-mail portal.
The National Movement Simeon II (NMSII) bright yellow banner sporting the slogan “Let’s Go Ahead to be Proud of Bulgaria” and the signature of their leader, Saxe-Coburg, can also be seen on the Gyuvetch portal and the ABV mail service.
The Mediapool news site, which has never hidden its right-wing political affiliations, sports the banners of the UtDF and the Democrats for a Strong Bulgaria.
And the poster war has broken out everywhere.
It seems, however, that the times when party volunteers stuck up posters in the dead of night have passed.
In broad daylight, at a busy intersection in the centre of Sofia, a man was busy with a bucket of glue, a brush and a bag of assorted party posters in tow, indiscriminately pasting fresh posters on top of those from the previous day.
Asked by The Sofia Echo about his package of rival posters, the man, who was swearing under his breath about possibly getting into trouble for messing in politics, replied that he was pasting up whatever his boss gave him.
While some of the parties have apparently chosen to play on the strength of their slogans or, like the Coalition for Bulgaria which opted to depict playing children and construction workers on their lunch break, others, like the DSB, Evroroma and the Bulgarian People’s Union, have preferred to portray the smiling faces of their leaders or, in the case of Evroroma, chalga singers.
Radio stations, both big and small, have got a piece of the election pie by flighting ads for major parties.