How much money do parties spend to promote themselves on Facebook: AUR, over 1.2 million lei. Who follows in the ranking / Tens of thousands of ads financed with public funds.

The party led by George Simion ranks first when it comes to the funds used for promotion on Facebook in the last three months, totaling 1. 2 million lei.Following AUR are PSD with 880,000 lei, PNL with 810,000 lei, and USR with 640,000 lei.AUR also leads significantly in the number of ads, with over 7,000 advertisements compared to PNL, which comes in second with over 2,000 ads, according to an analysis by Expert Forum..

As of October, the Permanent Electoral Authority (AEP) had transferred 264 million lei to political parties out of a total sum of 314 million lei that will be disbursed by the end of the year.

The parties allocated the majority of their funds to media, propaganda, personnel, political consultancy, and ‘electoral activities.’.

How much money do parties spend on Facebook promotion?

In the last three months, parties have collectively spent 5 million lei on promotion on Facebook.Of this amount, 4. 2 million lei can be directly associated with a political party, as noted by Expert Forum:

AUR – 1. 2 million lei.

PSD – 880,000 lei.

PNL – 810,000 lei.

USR – 640,000 lei.

UDMR – 170,000 lei.

REPER – 40,000 lei.

Forța Dreptei – 30,000 lei.

PUSL – 30,000 lei.

This money has been used to create advertisements, a category where AUR remains in the lead:

AUR: over 7,000 ads.

PNL: over 2,000 ads.

PSD: over 2,000 ads.

UDMR: over 1,000 ads.

USR: nearly 1,000 ads.

‘The analysis includes 164 pages affiliated with PSD, 124 with AUR, 157 with PNL, and 93 with USR.Even though not all the pages that incurred expenses are listed, they certainly represent the majority of the expenditures.Many pages are linked to AUR, either directly through members or through affiliated pages established or supported by members or supporters of the party.Some of these are related to campaigns or take the form of publications,’ according to Expert Forum.

Funds for counter-campaigns

In addition to these expenditures, certain amounts are also utilized by other Facebook pages, primarily to attack specific candidates rather than to promote someone in particular, the same source indicates:

‘The Political Investigations Group (45,000 lei spent), led by Mugur Ciuvică, ran an active campaign against Daniel Constantin, an incumbent PNL parliamentarian and former president of the Conservative Party.He entered into conflict with Dan Voiculescu in 2015 and accused the Intact group, led by him, of exerting pressure.

The page Băsism (13,000 lei spent), whose campaigns are also funded by GIP, promotes information related to individuals involved in the investigation and sentencing of Dan Voiculescu.

Diaspora Trădătoare is a page that spent 15,000 lei on 2 advertisements that appear to target Elena Lasconi, who made certain statements regarding the diaspora that were publicly criticized.

A postman in the service of the country is a page that ran a campaign against Nicolae Ciucă.It spent 5,863 lei.The page was established in July 2024.

Râsu Plânsu is a page launched in 2018 that has recently promoted several anti-Mircea Geoană campaigns, accusing him of lacking political independence.It has spent 9,533 lei.’.

PSD spent the most on Google promotion

To promote themselves on Google, parties collectively paid 1. 7 million lei.In this category, the party led by Marcel Ciolacu is in the lead:

PSD: 978,000 lei.

USR: 217,000 lei.

PNL: 202,000 lei.

AUR: 155,000 lei.

UDM: 11,000 lei.

REPER: 10,000 lei.

‘Google remains much less utilized than Facebook, and over half of the spending was invested by PSD.The Social Democrats spent the most in October, using video and image media almost equally.During the analyzed period, they recorded 893 advertisements.The campaigns are related to presidential candidate Marcel Ciolacu and the policies for the reindustrialization of Romania,’ explained Expert Forum.

The same source indicates that in August, PSD spent the most this year on media and propaganda – 12. 3 million lei.USR spent 4 million, while PNL allocated 3. 3 million for this category, and AUR paid 1. 6 million lei.