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 fist (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