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Political analyst: We had no campaign, it was rather antagonising one electorate against the other
The sociologist Gelu Duminica appreciates that for the local elections of this year there was no electoral campaign in the real sense of the word, based on debate of ideas and visions, but ‘antagonising’ one electorate against the other.
‘We had no campaign in the real sense of the word. Campaign with debate of ideas, projects with vision – nothing of this kind. We had an antagonising of an electoratel against the other, each candidate trying to focus on what is called ‘hate’. If we asked what the vision of candidate x is and what the vision of the other candidate is, what is left is that some candidate says ‘ without that candidate’. That is all’ Duminica says.
The sociologist considers that this campaign ‘ was a kind of monologue which everybody had with their own electorate’.
" ‘And then, each of them, in fact tried to mobilise their own electorate, forgetting that at the last elections only 33% of the Bucharest electorate took part and at national level I think something around 40%. And there was no Covid... The vote in one round – this is what it means. You can have a mayor in a city with two million of inhabitants as Bucharest with 200,000 votes. That was the reality for the past elections’ Gelu Duminica said.
He says that neither of the candidates ‘ wants a major mobilisation of the electorate, although the representative of the opposition does not win unless there is good participation’.
Gelu Duminica considers that for general elections the campaign will be ‘more dynamic’ but he said that he did not expect ‘ real visions’.
‘And this may be due to the antagonisation which could be higher on the individual than on the political bondy, which has people who could be ‘hated’ as well as people who could be ‘ loved’.Generalisation is smaller than the ‘ bad’ which is perceived with face, name and so on, such as an individual ‘ Duminica said
The sociologist does not expect for parliamentary elections ‘real, consolidated visions’.
‘Especially if I rely on the latest measures taken by the parliament which show whatever, but not a healthy vision regarding the development of Romania. And I refer to the growth of pensions, salaries, bonuses offered to teachers and all the populism which we had over the last days. I expect, so, an antagonisation of one electorate against the other.I don’t think that Romania, real Romania functions with such kind of antagonism. I think that real Romania needs at present, visions, charismatic leaders, enthusiasm, and the Romanian political world does not have such politicians to send such messages’.Gelu Duminica said.
In his turn, sociologist Barbu Mateescu considers the electoral campaign for local elections a "bizzare’ one and "atypical’ one as everybody adjusted to some special circumstances.
"The pandemics blocked many initiatives, very many possible actions for communication and it was made mainly through the press, through Facebook, but there were also subjects which occupied the public agenda. For example, the starting of the school year in the Covid context. So there were many things which hindered the capacity of the politicians to communicate with their electorate’.