Campaign kicks off with generous budgets and hard-to-trace sources

The presidential candidates and the political parties that support them have mobilized substantial amounts for promotion since the first week of the campaign, but their strategies are increasingly focused on the online environment, while transparency regarding the real source of funds - especially in the case of loans - remains limited, according to a report by the Expert Forum think tank, a document that was published on Friday.

According to data collected by the cited source in the first week of the electoral campaign, the candidates reported contributions totaling 13.8 million lei, an amount much higher than the 2.3 million lei declared in the first week of the campaign for the presidential elections of November 24, 2024. For the elections of May 4, the largest amounts were declared by Victor Ponta - 10.4 million lei - and Nicuşor Dan - 3.1 million lei. Candidates Ion John Banu Muscel and Silviu Predoiu declared 80,000 lei each, while Lavinia Şandru and Daniel Funeriu reported contributions of 50,000 lei each. The rest of the candidates did not declare their own income.

Almost the entire amount declared as their own contribution, approximately 97% of the total, comes from loans, the cited source shows. In the case of Victor Ponta, it is not clear whether the source of these loans is represented by individuals or legal entities, while in the case of Nicuşor Dan all the loans come from individuals. Of the total contributions declared by Ponta, only 24,000 lei come from donations, the rest being exclusively loans. The other candidates reported only funds from their own income.

Regarding the transfers of funds made by political parties to support presidential candidates, they amounted to 25.2 million lei, significantly less than the 73 million lei declared in the first week of last year's presidential campaign. Crin Antonescu, the candidate of the Romania Forward alliance, benefited from the largest amounts - 20 million lei, coming from private funds, without the use of public subsidies, according to the report published by Expert Forum. Contributions for Crin Antonescu's campaign came from PSD (15.7 million lei), UDMR (2.4 million lei) and PNL (2 million lei), parties that, by the way, did not use state subsidies at this stage. Candidate George Simion received 5 million lei from AUR, entirely from loans, while USR, which until the end of the first week of the campaign was unclear whether it supported Elena Lasconi or Nicuşor Dan (it eventually moved with weapons and luggage to the camp of the current mayor of the capital), contributed only 120,000 lei from subsidies, a tiny amount compared to the 2 million lei declared in the first week of the 2024 presidential campaign. Expert Forum notes a strong tendency of parties to use funds from their own income, with the idea of being able to recover them later through reimbursements and to keep the subsidies intact for other types of expenses.

In terms of expenses, the amounts reported by the competitors reach 13.7 million lei, much less than the 47 million lei spent in the first seven days of the campaign for the presidential elections in November 2024. PSD is the party with the highest expenses, reporting 6.57 million lei. Victor Ponta spent 4.38 million lei, and Nicuşor Dan 2.01 million lei. UDMR reported 493,000 lei, PNL spent 147,000 lei, and USR, 119,000 lei. PUSL spent just under 50,000 lei, while Daniel Funeriu, only 2,000 lei, shows the cited source.

Most of the funds - 84% of the total, or approximately 11.5 million lei - were directed towards online promotion, while traditional advertising on radio, TV and the press represented only 8% of the total, or approximately one million lei. The rest of the expenses were divided between electoral publications (741,000 lei) and other categories, such as logistics or rents, totaling 435,000 lei. PSD spent 88% of its budget on online promotion, mainly through digital promotion contracts, 8% on printed materials and 4% on other expenses related to the electoral campaign. This is a considerable reduction compared to the previous campaign, when the party had spent 11 million lei on clothing alone and another 10 million on TV propaganda.

Victor Ponta directed 75% of the budget to online promotion and the rest to traditional advertising, while Nicuşor Dan used 99% of the budget for online, the rest being used for rents. UDMR allocated 61% of the funds for online and 38% for publications, and PNL spent all the money on miscellaneous expenses, without a clear focus on any communication direction.

The cited source states that, regarding the companies that benefited from these contracts, the largest amounts from PSD were directed to Vertigo Events SRL, which received 2.8 million lei for online promotion. The company, founded in 2015 and with only two employees in 2023, is owned by Gabriel Radu Constantinescu and Cezar Bujeniţă Batog, the latter known for his previous ties to PSD. Other companies contracted by PSD include Stative Media and Modern Art Design, the latter having collaborated with AUR in the past. Expert Forum mentions that Victor Ponta paid the largest amounts to TV BUZĂU TRUST CAMPUS SRL (2.4 million lei), a company owned by Mocanu Antonel, close to Pro România, and to RTV HD SRL (1 million lei), which holds the license for România TV. Other companies that worked for Ponta include B Mobile SRL, with almost 900,000 lei collected. The cited source claims that Nicuşor Dan directed most of the funds to Terramin Mesh Marketing SRL, a company with which he also collaborated in the 2024 local elections, owned by Meshoulam Oren Benjamin and Popescu Maria-Elena, with a single employee in 2023.

Expert Forum will continue monitoring and analyzing financial developments in the 2025 presidential campaign, tracking both transparency and spending trends in the coming period.