site.btaFront-Runners in 2021 Bulgarian Parliamentary Elections: Patriotic Coalition - Volya and NFSB

Sofia, March 30 (BTA) - This is the sixth piece in a series of backgrounders that BTA's Daily News is running ahead of the April 4 general elections in Bulgaria. The series covers eight parties and coalitions which polls show to be certain or likely, to various degrees, to win seats in the next Parliament: VMRO Bulgarian National Movement; Bulgarian Socialist Party; Movement for Rights and Freedoms; Democratic Bulgaria Alliance; Rise Up! Thugs Out!; Patriotic Coalition - Volya and NFSB; GERB-UDF; Ima Takuv Narod [There Is Such a People]. They are arranged according to the number by which they will appear on the ballots.

Patriotic Coalition - Volya and NFSB

History

The Patriotic Coalition was registered on February 12, 2021 by two parties:

Volya (formerly Liberal Alliance and Today; the name means 'Will' in Bulgarian), founded in 2007, with headquarters in Varna (Northern Black Sea coast) and Vesselin Mareshki as irreplaceable leader;

National Front for Salvation of Bulgaria (NFSB), founded in 2011, with headquarters in Bourgas (Southern Black Sea coast) and Valeri Simeonov is irreplaceable leader.

Six other parties: the United Social Democracy Party, the Bulgarian Social Democratic Party, the Christian Democratic Party of Bulgaria, the Radical Democratic Party in Bulgaria, the Radicals Bulgarian Democratic Union and the Bulgarian Agrarian National Union, joined the Patriotic Coalition later on.

Ideology

The ideological makeup of the coalition can be inferred from the profiles of its constituent parties.

Based on its conduct in Parliament, attitude to other political forces and membership of previous coalitions, Volya can be defined as a Right-wing populist party. Its Euroscepticism, nationalism and anti-immigrant messages are occasional outbursts rather than a consistent policy. Volya's desire to rub shoulders with Europe's far Right brought to Bulgaria, for the launch of its campaign for the European elections in 2019, the leaders of the French National Rally, the Movement for a Europe of Nations and Freedom (which Volya joined in 2018), the Slovak We Are Family Party, and the Czech Freedom and Direct Democracy Party.

NFSB has been an avowed nationalist party ever since its establishment, attracting both Right- and Left-leaning supporters. In 2013 and 2014 (when NFSB set up its Patriotic Front Coalition with VMRO), it was backed by various smaller nationalist entities some of which merged into it later on. In 2016, Volya and VMRO coalesced yet again as the United Patriots. (The third party in the United Patriots, Ataka, was expelled from the coalition in 2019). After the 2017 parliamentary elections, the United Patriots became GERB's junior partner in the incumbent Boyko Borissov Government.

In the past four years, Volya, while claiming nominal opposition status in Parliament, has provided the votes that the ruling coalition needed to push through its initiatives.

Volya and NFSB share a lot in common: both use distinctly patriotic/nationalist rhetoric, both are leader-dominated parties (Mareshki and Simeonov have been instrumental in shaping their respective platforms and actions), both reject "gender ideology" and same-sex parenting, and both espouse "economic patriotism," which is only natural, considering their leaders' business backgrounds.

The latter explains some of their Right-wing ideas, especially support for Bulgarian business, but this is not a consistent ideological doctrine: when Mareshki ran for mayor of Varna in 2011 as an independent candidate, he was backed by three Left parties.

Platform, Policies, Positions

The few highlights in the Patriotic Coalition campaign platform include: free medicines for people over 65 and schoolchildren under 18; a 200 leva-plus raise of all pensions, with a minimum monthly wage of 500 leva; a 1,000 leva minimum monthly wage; setting up a nationwide chain of filling stations with fairly priced fuel; lump-sum birth benefits for a first (2,000 leva), second (5,000 leva) and third (10,000 leva) child, limited to parents aged over 18 with at least secondary; introducing literacy qualifications for voting; starting patented vaccine production in Bulgaria as a pragmatic solution to the vaccines crisis.

Support Base Profile

The Patriotic Coalition is competing for the nationalist vote with its obvious rivals VMRO and Ataka, but political forces across the political spectrum, including GERB, BSP and There Is Such a People, as well as smaller parties, also target this part of the electorate. Categories like Left and Right nationalism, anti-Roma, anti-Turkish, pro-Russian nationalism, etc., are rather academic and speculative.

With their hard-to-pinpoint age range, property status and geographical distribution, this group of voters is one of the biggest unknowns in the upcoming elections.

Tactics, Ambitions, Goals

Clear messages are one of the Patriotic Coalition's strengths. This applies to their campaign promises as well as their future strategy. They have pledged never to form a coalition with the Bulgarian Socialist Party and the Movement for Rights and Freedoms and to be exponents of "pragmatic economic patriotism, which is definitely a centrist or Centre-Right policy", to use Simeonov's words.

Having been part of the Government in the past four years, NFSB is campaigning on previous campaign promises it has fulfilled. They thus claim credit for raising the minimum monthly pension to 300 leva, building an anti-migrant fence along the border with Turkey, enforcing noise level control legislation, and winning a battle against the gambling industry and more particularly against fugitive gambling mogul Vassil Bojkov.

Personalities

The most prominent figures in the Patriotic Coalition are undoubtedly the leaders of the two principal parties in it.

Before setting up NFSB, Valeri Simeonov was part of the Right-wing Union of Democratic Forces, and he co-founded Ataka with Volen Siderov in 2005. He has business interests in the hospitality industry. He also owns a TV station (SKAT) and a local daily.

Simeonov's signature rhetoric is totally politically incorrect. He gained notoriety for clashing with protesting disabled children's mothers, calling them "loudmouthed women who manipulate the public and exploit their allegedly sick children by taking them out to the street in rain and scorching heat, careless and devoid of maternal feeling". Despite having been forced to resign as deputy prime minister after this statement, he did not change his ways, which goes to show that a large segment of the public in Bulgaria is very much supportive of such behaviour.

"The New York Times" described Vesselin Mareshki as "a self-promoting tycoon" "who talks (and acts) like Trump". A couple of years ago, he diversified from a countrywide network of pharmacies into a chain of liquid fuel retail outlets. Both operations have a reputation with buyers for selling at affordable prices. Mareshki quite dexterously uses his business in politics. Even before the beginning of the election campaign, he launched large roadside billboards and TV commercials, gaining an edge over his political rivals. While advertising his pharmacies and filling stations did not technically violate the ban on canvassing ahead of the campaign start, the public was nevertheless exposed to his omnipresent image. In another publicity stunt during the campaign, Mareshki offers potential voters to sign a formal contract with his party, undertaking to build within two years a filling station where the voter will enjoy special discounts - as long as Volya-NFSB win 10 per cent or more of the votes in the voter's home municipality. Under the contract, if Volya defaults on its obligation, it will pay the voter up to 5,000 leva in damages over four years. The contract expressly states that it does impose any obligations on the voter, including whether and how to vote. Mareshki claimed in a TV interview that 300,000 had signed the contract by March 27.

Mareshki and Simeonov are known to have exchanged personal insults in the past: in 2019, Simeonov said that Mareshki is "not a benchmark of political virility," to which Mareshki replied that "there is no place for political prostitutes in the Bulgarian Parliament". That is why the emergence of their coalition took some analysts by surprise. RY/LN/LG