Two recent opinion polls, the one that points to Cristian Popescu Piedone as the favorite with 44% in Bucharest, and the one that shows AUR as the first party in the preferences of young people aged 18 to 35, have caused a collective resentment among voters.

Colleagues from HotNews.ro received the first data of the survey initiated by the non-partisan public movement “Youth Votes”. According to the research, out of all the parties AUR mobilizes the most votes in the 18-35 age segment “if the parliamentary elections were held next Sunday.” The study was conducted by IRES.

Almost one in four young people who say they will participate in the elections say they will vote for AUR

There are rumors that about 15% of the options in the AUR are not who knows what. But 15% is a figure calculated from the total number of respondents.

Instead, among those who say they will vote, AUR collects almost a quarter of options, Hotnews reports. 1 in 4 young people who want to vote believe that it is appropriate to give their trust to George Simion’s party. All other parties and coalitions, numerous, gather 3 out of 4.

Piedone by 44%, Nicușor Dan by 27%

Another institute, Avangarde, at Digi24’s request, conducted a poll on Bucharest: “If the mayoral elections were held next Sunday, Cristian Popescu Piedone would win with 44% of the vote, followed by the electorate. Nikushor Dan with 27% of votes and Katalin Kirshtoy with 16%.”

“We don’t think so,” is the first reaction in the public space, primarily in social networks.

However, both the IRES and Avangarde surveys are consistent with previously measured trends in 2020 and 2022.

Refusal of knowledge

The data that AUR is the favorite of the youth appears for the first time in the public domain, but it is not the first time that George Simion’s party has been noted to have a large number of young voters.

Regarding the Bucharest mayoral election, even Nikušor Dan published a recent poll that points to Cristian Popescu Piedone as the favorite.

“We don’t believe it” is a line that offers momentary comfort to those with other political options. But it can also be a disconnect from reality.

Education in Romania, one of the reasons?

The second reaction, even more intense than the denial of knowledge, is to devalue the voices of the young. A tsunami of social media is giving rise to the idea that the political choices of young people are the result of poor education in Romania.

We still accept the reality of the polls, but say it is generated by something unworthy of us. We are based on the theory that young people are deprived of information. They have no prospects and are prisoners of social networks. They don’t vote well, and that’s a sign of their mediocrity.

It’s true that there are many studies that show that social media is toxic. Florida prepares to ban social media for 14-year-olds. And at the age of 14 and 15, it will be possible to open an account only with the consent of the parents.

Florida is not a marginal example. If it were a country, Florida would be in the top 15 economies in the world; it’s over Spain, for example.

Do we change the rule when we don’t like the possible outcomes?

Beyond the real social media crisis, mistrust of others’ abilities is contagious. No one seems to be voting, not the youth, not the people of Bucharest, and so on, because they want the drastic reaction of an extended internet bubble.

But what is the solution? Because if, according to Ben Shapiro, a popular American conservative political commentator, we lose faith in the ability of our fellow citizens to fulfill the basic requirements of citizenship, then we are handing over power to the aristocracy, aren’t we? But we are angry with the political aristocracy that rules Romania.

Here’s what the data looks like now with statistical approximations and margin of error. Now people know, they have information. In the last elections, many Romanians said “where did AUR come from, where did Piedone come from in Sector 5, that if I had known, I would have gone to vote too?”.

Now it is known.