Expert Forum analyzed the financial data published by electoral competitors in the presidential and parliamentary elections. The first two weeks of the presidential campaign and the first week of the parliamentary election campaign were analyzed.
The PSD spent the most money in the presidential campaign
According to data processed by Expert Forum, the Social Democratic Party leads the list of expenditures made during the first two weeks of the presidential campaign. The PSD candidate is Marcel Ciolacu.
During this period, the Social Democrats recorded bills worth 37 million lei, while the rest of the competitors spent, together, almost 10 million lei. Of this amount, the PSD spent 12 million lei on propaganda in mass media, 10 million lei on online propaganda and 11 million lei on clothing. The Social Democrats say they have financed their campaign so far with their own funds.
Online political advertising, for example, promotional campaigns on the parties’ Facebook page, while mass media promotion involves, for example, promotion on news sites.
According to the cited report, in the same period, the PNL (which supports the candidate Nicolae Ciucă) recorded invoices of 4.2 million lei, the AUR (which supports the candidate George Simion) recorded invoices of 1, 87 million lei and the USR (which supports candidate Elena Lasconi) recorded invoices of 1.2 million lei.
The other parties spent 1.1 million lei during the first two weeks of the presidential campaign.
In general, parties collaborate during the campaign for presidential elections with the same companies with which they collaborate for legislative elections, indicates the cited report. 33% of expenses were reported for “miscellaneous services” such as clothing, and 58% of expenses were charged for media and online advertising.
In terms of income, the USR and the PNL depend the most on subsidies received from the state, also highlights the Forum of Experts (2 million lei in the case of the USR and 750,000 lei in the case of the PNL) .
Mircea Geoană, the largest amount spent among independent candidates
In the case of independent candidates, Mircea Geoană tops the list of expenses, with 1.6 million lei. He reported, in the first two weeks of the election campaign, higher spending than the USR, for example.
Geoana reported income of 1.6 million lei for this period, of which 24,000 lei came from a donation, 1.5 million lei from several loans and 120,000 lei from its own income.
The largest amount (1.4 million lei), according to the cited report, was allocated by Geoană for online promotion, to a company owned by the vice-president of the football team Gloria Buzău.
Cristian Diaconescu declared as income for this campaign the sum of 375,000 lei, obtained thanks to a loan. Ana Birchall declared as income the amount of 200,000 lei, of own funds.
The PSD at the top of campaign spending for the general elections
The Social Democratic Party also leads in campaign spending for the parliamentary elections, according to the same Expert Forum report. The Social Democrats have billed 16.91 million lei so far. The largest amount was allocated for online promotion and mass media propaganda (11 million lei).
During the same period, the PNL spent 5.3 million lei, the AUR 2.1 million lei and the USR 2.1 million lei. Most of the money, also in the case of these parties, was allocated to promotion in the online environment and media propaganda.
During the campaign for the parliamentary elections, candidates from all parties contributed around 70 million lei. The largest amount – 30 million lei – came from more than 200 PSD candidates. The Liberals contributed 20 million lei to the PNL campaign, the AUR received 6.3 million lei from the candidates and the USR received 3.2 million lei from the candidates.
“Some of the companies that have received the most money have links to the parties, being owned by members of the parties themselves or by people who have borrowed from the parties at some point. “Since the expenses of parties that receive more than 3% of the vote are reimbursed by the state budget, campaign financing becomes a form of support for party enterprises or of rewarding certain people who finance parties by where necessary,” states the Forum expert report.
Source : Romania Journal.ro
