The main candidates for the presidential elections invested, in addition to the traditional promotion, and in the online promotion, the largest expenses being reported in the case of the Coalition candidate, Crin Antonescu. In second place is the independent candidate Victor Ponta.
The most promoted candidates in online are Crin Antonescu and Victor Ponta Photo Collaj/Inquam Photos
In total, according to an expert forum report, 28.655,332 lei spent parties and candidates for promotion in the online environment, between April 4-15, the total amount of money spent for the campaign amounting to 67,758,367 lei. The smallest amount was invested in polls, expenses that appear only next to PSD (310,956 lei) and independent candidate Victor Ponta (152,320).
However, according to another report of the Expert Forum, which analyzes the period of April 5-17, the costs for promotion through Meta and Google services are very low, almost 10% of the total costs.
George Simion is one of the most popular politicians on social media platforms. The head of Gold, with a constant presence in the online environment, now reached the first place in polls, has 1.5 million followers on Facebook. On only 52,800 followers on Instagram, but Tiktok collected 1.3 million followers.
In his case, Gold did not report expenses on the online environment, but George Simion’s official page spent for 9 ads 40,000 lei between April 8 and 14, 2025. The second report shows that for his Facebook page, a total of 46,435 lei.
The most promoted candidates
In the second place regarding the popularity on Facebook is Victor Ponta, with 996,000 followers on Facebook. On Instagram has 140,000 fans, and Tiktok has 187,839, a sign that the amount invested in promoting online, amounting to 6,603,238 lei, between April 4 and 15, gave fruit. Victor Ponta is ranked second in the expenses for the online environment. For the meta platforms, in his case 88,000 lei were spent until April 13th. The total amount for the Facebook page was 760,513 lei
On the first place regarding the expenses is Crin Antonescu, the candidate of the ruling coalition, who has 50,000 followers on Facebook, and on Instagram 7,500 followers. The Tiktok page indicates 17,648 fans.
For promotion, between April 5-17, that is the first two weeks of election campaign for the presidency elections in May, among the parties that support it, the PSD spent the largest amount online, ie 16,678,124 lei, followed by the UDMR, with 523,917 lei, and then by PNL, with 89.250 lei. In order to promote the meta platforms in the case of Crin Antonescu, 112,000 lei were spent on April 10 and 134,000 lei on April 16. The total amount invested for the Facebook page is 857,868 lei, according to the second report. He also has an associated page for which 33,301 lei were invested.
Campaign money dedicated to online environment
Nicușor Dan has 397,000 followers on the Facebook page, on Instagram reached 494,000 followers, and on Tiktok 137,057 fans. The mayor of the capital is in 4th place in terms of online expenses, with 4,000,000 lei. Moreover, the amount represents 99% of the money spent for the campaign, ie 4,019,045 lei. In the case of Nicușor Dan appears the amount of 615,138 lei for the Facebook page in the report.
Elena Lasconi has 188,000 followers on Facebook. On Instagram collected 94,900 followers, and on Tiktok 156.040 followers. However, the head of the USR was abandoned by the party in the campaign Mijllocul, the leaders of the formation wishing to promote Nicușor Dan, which is not allowed in the current campaign, having another candidate designated in the presidential race.
In the case of the head of the USR, which also lost access to the campaign funds, the report shows that the party spent 213,486 lei for online promotion. For the Facebook page of Elena Lasconi, 5,174 lei were spent, the second report shows.
The smallest amounts went to Google. According to one of the Expert Forum reports, it is 500 lei, of which the PSD paid 285,856 lei, and Nicușor Dan 90,927 lei. Other amounts allocated also appear next to the UDMR (32,533 lei), Victor Ponta (26,750 lei) and Crin Antonescu (25,000 lei).
The least popular candidates
In the case of less known and low -chance of candidates in polls, in some cases the pages are not marked as verified. Some of them use their personal social pages for promotion, and others do not have pages on all platforms.
Daniel Funeriu has only 715 followers on Facebook and 627 on Instagram. Tiktok has 108 followers. According to Expert Forum, for promotion online spent 140,998 lei. Cristian Terheș, whose tiktok page is older is older. He has 68,202 followers on Tiktok, 387,000 on Facebook and 1,042 on Instagram. In his case, however, there are no reports.
Lavinia Șandru, an older personality in Romanian politics, has 26,000 followers on Facebook, 1,136 on Instagram and 48,807 followers on Tiktok. In his case only 92 lei appear for the Facebook page.
John Ion Banu has 1,400 followers on Facebook, and Tiktok has 2,737 followers. In his case, 20,000 lei went on online promotion, that is, most of the amount 39,995 lei spent.
Silviu Predoiu has 5,000 friends on his personal Facebook page and 2,900 on the official Facebook page. It also has 4,601 followers on Tiktok. In his case, the amount of 1,619 lei for Facebook appears. In fact, the party invested 25,000 lei for online promotion.
As for Sebastian Constantin Popescu, no reports appear. The candidate uses the Facebook page, where he has 4,700 friends. Much better sits on Tiktok, where he gathered 26,868 followers.
