{"id":7032,"date":"2025-10-02T07:02:26","date_gmt":"2025-10-02T07:02:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ofero.news\/?p=7032"},"modified":"2025-10-02T07:02:26","modified_gmt":"2025-10-02T07:02:26","slug":"romanian-parties-spend-more-than-half-of-subsidies-on-propaganda-and-media-watchdog-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ofero.news\/?p=7032","title":{"rendered":"Romanian parties spend more than half of subsidies on propaganda and media, watchdog says"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Romanian political parties directed 53% of their RON 174 million (EUR 35 million) in public subsidies during January-August towards media and propaganda expenses, according to a <a href=\"https:\/\/expertforum.ro\/subventii-ianaugust2025\/?mc_cid=383c80aab8&amp;mc_eid=cd1f92f96c\" target=\"_blank\">report<\/a> published by the Expert Forum (EFOR) on October 1. The watchdog estimates that by the end of 2025, total party subsidies will reach RON 284 million (EUR 57 million).<\/p>\n<p>The report comes despite previous commitments by prime minister Ilie Bolojan to reduce state financing for political parties. Although Bolojan recently mentioned a possible 10% cut, the latest budget revision maintained current subsidy levels without any decrease.<\/p>\n<p>According to EFOR, the Social Democratic Party (PSD) and the National Liberal Party (PNL) allocated the largest sums to propaganda. PSD spent RON 75.8 million in total, with 81% of this dedicated exclusively to press and propaganda contracts. PNL devoted RON 9.1 million, a third of its expenses, to similar activities.<\/p>\n<p>The Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR) allocated 53% of its spending &#8211; RON 16 million &#8211; to media contracts, and an additional RON 1.8 million for producing and broadcasting advertising spots.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>In contrast, the Save Romania Union (USR) directed only 20% of its outlays, or RON 4.9 million, to press and propaganda, with most funds going to personnel costs.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>SOS Romania reported minimal spending on propaganda, just RON 12,500, focusing instead on political activities and travel.<\/p>\n<p>EFOR criticised party leaders for refusing to disclose details of their media and propaganda contracts.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe behaviour of political leaders is regrettable given their reluctance to provide transparency over the use of public money,\u201d the organisation said, noting that although Law 544\/2001 does not oblige parties to publish this information proactively, they could do so voluntarily.<\/p>\n<p>The report warned that parties often adopt a confrontational stance towards journalists asking about their spending, despite the reliance on taxpayer funding.<\/p>\n<p><em>iulian@romania-insider.com<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>(Photo source: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dreamstime.com\/\">Lcva\/Dreamstime.com<\/a>)<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Romanian political parties directed 53% of their RON 174 million (EUR 35 million) in public subsidies during January-August towards media and propaganda expenses, according to a report published by the Expert Forum (EFOR) on October 1. The watchdog estimates that by the end of 2025, total party subsidies will reach RON 284 million (EUR 57 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7032","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ofero.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7032","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ofero.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ofero.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ofero.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7032"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ofero.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7032\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ofero.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7032"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ofero.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7032"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ofero.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7032"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}