The wiretapped conversations, or what are widely known as the “Bombs”, released by the opposition, despite bringing changes to the political scene, they have also influenced the rhetoric of politicians at campaign rallies, causing an increase during this election period of nationalistic terms and insults, analysts believe.
Terms such as “federalisation”, “canonization” and “bilingualism” are just some of the terms used at rallies by the leader of the VMRO-DPMNE, Nikola Gruevski. For these alleged future state processes he accuses the SDSM leader Zoran Zaev, who, on the other hand, at his party rallies repeatedly stressed that Gruevski is a “criminal”.
At the promotion of candidates for MPs for the DUI party, Ali Ahmeti’s Head of Cabinet, Artan Grubi, could be heard shouting loudly “UÇK, UÇK” (which stands for the KLA, the Kosovo Liberation Army or in Albanian: Ushtria Çlirimtare e Kosovës -UÇK) toee which only a few of those present responded to. “UCK” was one of phrases also chanted at the rally for the Besa movement this wiiiiiiiiiiieek on Tuesday (a very sensitive subji=ect in Macedonia).
Political analyst, Albert Musliu believes that the publication of the “bombs”, by the opposition has influenced the rhetoric of politicians at rallies, as the ruling party wants to draw attention away from their content, the opposition wants to point out how social life should not look like.
The nationalistic rhetoric that intimidates voters, Musliu believes that mostly VMRO-DPMNE uses this rhetoric when talking to their members in order to keep them. These phrases, according to him, are not intended to win over the undecided voters.
Goce Pachemski, a consultant in public relations, believes that the “bombs” have had an impact on the election rhetoric, especially in the performances of the opposition.
“Again and again we see that our politicians in their appearances are not guided by the real needs of the people, but by their own assumptions of what the citizens need. Therefore, many of their messages sound so detached from reality. Also, many politicians, are unable to offer feasible solutions to the real needs of the citizens, again and stubbornly they cling on to highly politicized issues that they believe will bring them the most points with the electorate (eg, national rights, use of language, decision, federalization, etc.). However, judging by some of the reactions from members of the public, it seems that the majority of citizens no longer buy into such themes and messages . Simply, citizens now seek answers to their existential issues, not hypotheses and conspiracy theories”, Pachemski added.
