EFOR analyzed the expenses of the parties in social media between January and March 2024. At USR, PSD and AUR, the pages of the leaders were among those that recorded the highest expenses

The study focuses on the amounts allocated to campaigns that are marked as political/electoral or with social impact. The research showed that the parties spent over three million lei on Facebook through official pages or those of members/candidates/elected officials at the local or central level. In addition to these expenses, almost another 600 thousand lei were promoted through Facebook for online publications, non-governmental organizations or other entities, through advertisements marked as political/electoral/social.

“More than 75% of the money (2.4 million) was spent by USR, PNL (700 thousand lei each), PSD (650 thousand lei) and AUR (325 thousand lei). The combined total expenses of the four parties did not increase compared to the same period last year. Punctual, PNL expenses increased, and those of USR associated pages decreased. The expenses of the pages associated with AUR increased almost 20 times. At USR, PSD and AUR, the pages of the leaders were among those that recorded the highest expenses. At PNL, the party president’s page is lower in the list in terms of expenditure. In addition to the politicians’ pages, we have identified pages that appear to be publications, but which are associated with some parties. The most and visible ones are found in connection with AUR, which have a large number of advertisements, even if they do not invest very much”, EFOR said.

The analysis also showed how politicians act in the territory, despite the alliances made in Bucharest.

“An interesting result of the analysis is that we discovered a number of 42 pages that promoted 127 advertisements worth 20,000 lei in Neamţ County. Although the amount is not large, it is interesting how information is transmitted in very similar formats in several localities in Neamţ county, promoting PNL candidates and denigrating PSD local elected officials. This type of concerted campaign actually shows that the PSD-PNL alliances are not as strong at the local level as the party leaders in the center present them. We cannot conclude whether or not the ads are paid for by subsidies. However, we notice that promotion in the online environment occupies a very small percentage of the total investments made by parties from subsidies. Political migration or the candidacies of former party members as independents influenced some of the changes mentioned above. In the context of the June elections, this migration will intensify”, the authors of the research also announced.

Regarding the Google platform, the political parties spent approximately 600,000 lei.

“Half of the money was spent by PSD, and almost 40% by USR. Most of the spending was related to advertisers who promoted the party itself; the cases where the advertiser is a person are fewer. The expenses decreased compared to the similar period in 2023, when payments of almost 700,000 lei were recorded. Advertisers associated with PNL and USR spent significantly less, and those linked to PSD six times more”, was the conclusion of EFOR.