За ЗЕЛЕНИТЕ в APCNews: Grass root(er)s: Green e-activists of Eastern Europe enter politics

06.08.2009

Страницата за новини на международната мрежа от организации Association for Progressive Communications (APC) публикува анализ на Павел Антонов за появата на ЗЕЛЕНИТЕ и на унгарската партия Lehet Más a Politika! (Политиката може да бъде различна!) на изборите за Европейски парламент.

APC е основана 1990 г. и осигурява комуникационна инфраструктура на групи и личности работещи за мир, човешки права, опазване на околната среда и устойчивост. Организацията има съвещателен глас към Икономическия и социален съвет (ECOSOC) на Обединените Нации.

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Indeed, members of the For the Nature coalition had been campaigning for months against the non-transparent practice of exchanging cheaper forests for state-owned green areas along the Black Sea coast and in the high mountains, which would immediately be turned into construction development sites. But activists found it hard to believe that their repeated signals to Bulgaria’s law enforcement agencies and parliament and the EU, had actually worked. “The DANS had never budged before,” explained Stefan Avramov of the Bulgarian Biodiversity Foundation, who emailed the coalition’s mailing list. But scepticism aside, the greens had to face the fact that they had once again appeared at the right time and place to topple yet another Goliath breaching the public’s environmental interests. And internet communications had been the catapult in their hands.
The public had already faced it, with spontaneous citizen actions against the tourist construction bonanza in the mountains and along the Black Sea coast, sprawling from internet chat rooms and the blogosphere onto the streets of Sofia and other major cities since 2007. Two years later, flying on the wings of their rediscovered ability to set the public agenda, activists were ready to claim a stake in the country’s representative democracy system and run for elections with their own political party called Zelenite (the Greens).

Indeed, members of the For the Nature coalition had been campaigning for months against the non-transparent practice of exchanging cheaper forests for state-owned green areas along the Black Sea coast and in the high mountains, which would immediately be turned into construction development sites. But activists found it hard to believe that their repeated signals to Bulgaria’s law enforcement agencies and parliament and the EU, had actually worked. “The DANS had never budged before,” explained Stefan Avramov of the Bulgarian Biodiversity Foundation, who emailed the coalition’s mailing list. But scepticism aside, the greens had to face the fact that they had once again appeared at the right time and place to topple yet another Goliath breaching the public’s environmental interests. And internet communications had been the catapult in their hands.

The public had already faced it, with spontaneous citizen actions against the tourist construction bonanza in the mountains and along the Black Sea coast, sprawling from internet chat rooms and the blogosphere onto the streets of Sofia and other major cities since 2007. Two years later, flying on the wings of their rediscovered ability to set the public agenda, activists were ready to claim a stake in the country’s representative democracy system and run for elections with their own political party called Zelenite (the Greens).


Bulgaria's youngest green party is growing
Zelenite campagin: Let’s reclaim the state for the citizens
If common roots in the green movement is the first striking similarity between Zelenite in Sofia and LMP in Budapest, their reliance on the internet and online networking is certainly the second, beginning with the large-scale internet presence, through which both parties imposed to meet their respective countries’ formal requirements for participation in the elections. With the help of online signatures and money donations, Zelenite’s last minute happy-ending registration for the EU ballot was not less exciting. And while the two parties’ results (2.6 per cent of the vote for LMP and only 0.72 for Zelenite) were certainly no match for the great expectations and enthusiasm of their supporters, they were read as a distinguishable claim for future presence in both countries by political analysts.

e-networking in action
Both Zelenite and LMP campaigned aggressively online, aiming to raise their profile and consolidate support among young voters withinternet access, said representatives from Political Capital – a think tank that operates in both countries. Not surprisingly, internet and communication rights have found a prominent space in the Zelenite’s programme . The party’s campaign and election ballot featured Bogo Shopov, one of the faces of the online communication rights struggle in Bulgaria. This aspect of Zelenite’s campaign reflected a powerful public reaction against the infringement of freedom of both online and traditional forms of expression by state bodies and new policies aimed at the establishment of data retention.

But similarities do not stop here. Both parties had their electoral lists populated by young faces, well familiar to the public with their activist past: people like András Schiffer, a Védegylet activist since Sólyom’s presidential crusade, and Andrey Kovachev, the chair of Balkani – Sofia and a veteran from the media battles against the construction lobbyists. E-networking activists linked to APC’s members in Hungary and Bulgaria, were actively involved as well. BlueLink had at some point two of its Board members in Zelenite’s leadership, and its chairwoman Natalia Dimitrova ran for election in the European Parliament on Zelenite’s ticket. In Hungary Green Spider members were involved with ELP since its very start.



За ЗЕЛЕНИТЕ в Living on Earth,USA: Politics Grow Green in Bulgaria

21.07.2009

Популярната американска уеб базирана „зелена“ медия „Living on Earth“ излъчи и публикува обширен журналистически материал за ЗЕЛЕНИТЕ.

Седмичната радио-програма на „Living on Earth“ се излъчва от над 300 радиостанции по цялата територия на САЩ.

Ето връзка към самия аудио-запис от излъчения на 17 юли материала на журналиста Матю Брунуейзър:

Аудио- „Politics Grow Green in Bulgaria“

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Several generations of Eastern Europeans were discouraged from taking part in politics. That legacy lives on but in Bulgaria, youth are cutting through the apathy with a politics based on their love of the planet. From Bulgaria, Matthew Brunwasser reports.

BRUNWASSER: It was here on a beach called Irakli, that a young generation of environmentalists stepped in to fight a proposed vacation village. Most Bulgarians didn’t believe it was possible for citizens to do anything about unchecked development. There was a sense that Irakli was the only place left untouched on the entire Black Sea coast. The protestors won a year-long ban on construction and a movement was born.

[SOUNDS OF A CROWD]

BRUNWASSER: Genady Kondarev, at 27 a movement veteran, says that after the lies of Communism and rocky ride of capitalism, Bulgarians have already lost a lot.

KONDAREV: And the one thing that they can touch they can feel they can see is the Bulgarian nature. They know this is something beautiful, they know it’s a treasure that we have.


Genady Kondarev, candidate for parliament, in the Greens’ information tent in the center of Sofia talking to voters. (Photo: Claudia Yi Leon)

They know their grey cities, they know their Communist architecture, the grey blocks, the slowly decreasing spaces and gardens between these blocks. And they miss it; they want clean air. They want these normal things that should be actually a basic human right.

BRUNWASSER: So in what represented a major decision on strategy, the new environmentalists decided to form a political party, the Bulgarian Greens. It’s a shoestring operation, so there was little money for ads like this one.

[RADIO AD IN BULGARIAN]

VOICEOVER: We’re the greens. You know us from the protests to defend Irakli and the mountains. We’ve had our victories, but we want more… to preserve the nature of Bulgaria, unique in Europe for all its magnificence.

BRUNWASSER: The party had the funding to air this commercial on the national radio exactly three times. So the Greens mainly reach THE people by speaking to them directly, often from information tents they set up on streets around the country.

BRUNWASSER: The greens have clearly made politics fun. But when the votes were counted in recent parliamentary elections, the party got 22,000 votes, less than the 1% they were hoping for. That would have won them state support, like an office. No one expected the 4% needed to enter the Parliament. Yet Kondarev says the campaign has made them tough, and taught them how to fight.


Genady Kondarev bangs spoons in the march „lets make noise for nature.“

KONDAREV: I think everyone believes now that this party is an alternative, that this is a way to bring change in Bulgaria. And everyone from left to right is trying to flirt with us, trying to get us on their side.

BRUNWASSER: Everyone is trying to get us on their side now, he says. The big parties in Bulgaria now have environmental planks in their programs. And all are eager to harness the energy of the earnest young Greens. Almost 20 years after the fall of the Berlin wall, youth, and concern about the environment are healing the political wounds of Communism. The Greens say they have just gotten started.

Към целия материал в Living on Earth