Where Are Romanians’ Money Flowing?
Over 24 million lei (4.9 million euros) of public money were used, in a single month, by PSD, PNL, USR and AUR to carry out their activity, according to the report that was made to the Permanent Electoral Authority.
We consulted the last list of the parties’ expenses and presents a comparison of how the PSD, PNL, USR and AUR leaderships decided to use the amounts received from the state budget.
We specify that the finances are distributed by chapters, because the big parties, PSD and PNL, refuse to specify who the final recipients are: websites, polling houses, political consulting firms.
Since 2015, the parties have been receiving money from the budget to carry out their activities. The allocation increased from 14 million in 2016 to over 314 million lei in 2024. An increase of over 22 times in eight years.
If USR has a breakdown of expenses on its website, where the beneficiaries can also be seen, PSD and PNL do not respond to requests made under the law on free access to information of public interest.
Transparency has not increased recently, on the contrary. Marcel Ciolacu and Nicolae Ciucă have imposed a code of silence in the parties they lead about where public money goes, as the newspaper has shown on several occasions.
The analysis will show the expenses from October, the last month reported to the Permanent Electoral Authority.
The total shows that PNL used the most money this month, followed by PSD.
Amounts Spent from Subsidies in October
- PNL: 7.417.594 Lei – 7.417.594 Euro
- PSD: 7.232.232 Lei – 1.455.001 Euro
- AUR: 5.900.552 Lei – 1.187.090 Euro
- USR: 3.602.774 Lei – 724.816 Euro
Press and Propaganda Expenses
- PSD: 4.896.124 Lei – 985.016 Euro
- PNL: 3.869.932 Lei – 778.564 Euro
- USR: 1.150.155 Lei – 231.391 Euro
- AUR: 0 lei
Survey Expenses
- PSD: 804.347 Lei – 161.820 Euro
- PNL: 1.838.317 Lei – 369.838 Euro
- USR: 267.250 Lei – 53.766 Euro
- AUR: 1.885.850 Lei – 379.400 Euro
Political Consulting Expenses
- PSD: 480.551 Lei – 96.678 Euro
- PNL: 999.593 Lei – 201.101 Euro
- USR: 173.738 Lei – 34.953 Euro
- AUR: 21.000 Lei – 4.224 Euro
The Salary Budget for the Month of October
- PSD – 562.985 Lei – 113.262 Euro
- PNL – 333.440 Lei – 67.082 Euro
- USR – 804.645 Lei – 161.880 Euro
- AUR – 311.898 Lei – 62.748 Euro
Ciolacu and Ciucă Violate the Law on Information of Public Interest
A request was sent to the PSD in January 2023 to obtain information on the amounts paid for political advertising in the press. The PSD leader never complied with the request, although he had the obligation to provide an answer within 10 days, thus violating the law.
Marcel Ciolacu has made a commitment, in several public statements, that he will respond to this request. He never did.
A request was also sent to the PNL, on December 5, 2023, regarding the amounts paid to the press. Lucian Bode and Nicolae Ciucă did not respond, although the PNL president repeatedly promised that the party would provide an answer.
An investigation showed how one million euros reached the digi24.ro website since the Ciucă – Bode tandem was at the head of the PNL.
The investigation shows how USR and AUR use the money for propaganda and political advertising.
The Drawer in Which the PSD-Initiated Project Sits
A draft law submitted by the PSD in April 2023, by which websites would have been obliged to mark articles ordered by parties with the P sign, was never discussed in parliamentary committees and was never voted on.
If the law on combating tax evasion, submitted by Marcel Ciolacu and Nicolae Ciucă, passed the Parliament in just two days, the project that obliges websites to inform the public that they have an article paid for by parties is shelved in the Chamber of Deputies.
The legislative initiative passed silently by the Senate in September 2023, that is, it was not debated and voted on, but the 45-day deadline in which the senators should have decided on it was exceeded.
The project is currently in the Chamber of Deputies, but the Judiciary Commission has not given the necessary report for entering the plenary session.
Alfred Simonis, interim president of the Chamber of Deputies, is among the initiators of the law, but he did not ask his colleagues to vote for it.
The initiative submitted by the PSD came from the Permanent Electoral Authority and was with the Government between December 2022 and April 2023. Former Prime Minister Ciucă also refused to take it on.
PSD and formally assumed it by submitting it to the Parliament, after which nothing happened.
“There is no consensus in the Coalition on the project, therefore it is not subject to a vote. It will sit in the drawer until an agreement is reached between Ciolacu and Ciucă”, said parliamentary sources.
Romania will organize five rounds of elections in 2024: European, local, parliamentary and two presidential rounds.
The parties will be able to use the money from the subsidy in the campaign, but also outside it. Televisions do not have the legal right to collect money from parties outside of election campaigns, but the artifice is that the articles are ordered from the websites related to the televisions.
The items paid for by the parties are not marked in a distinct way from the other materials, however.
