Liberals are conducting an aggressive online campaign against the EDR, which they accuse of “sabotaging Romania’s entry into Schengen.” For several hours on Saturday morning, all of the advertising positions placed through Google Ads on the news station’s website contained liberal anti-GDR messages.

Click on the box with the message “Drula orders his people to blindly attack the government on TV.” Find out why” redirects the user to the PNL page with attacks on Catalin Drula’s party and him personally, being a direct accusation of serving interests other than those of Romania.

The Liberals’ online campaign began almost a week ago with the escalation of the BMW scandal for the police, in which the institution led by Lucian Bode decided to buy 600 BMW special cars from a company headed by a friend of Michael Schmidt. President Klaus Iohannis. On Saturday, however, its virulence was unprecedented.

The anti-USR messages promoted by the PNL contain a lot of information that has no basis in reality, mixed with partially true information.

Context of attacks

On September 18, the police union Europol accused the police cars of “song bidding”, saying that the technical characteristics are such that they are suitable for only one brand – BMW. The following day, this information was released by the press, and it also says that 600 cars were purchased from Automobile Bavaria, the company of Michael Schmidt, a friend of Klaus Johannis. In the following days, the information is spread in the press. Only at this moment does it pass as a subject to the UDR. Katelin Drula accused Lucian Bode of being a “corrupt minister” and President Klaus Iohannis of being “Il Capo” who protects the mafia. Bode argued that the tender was fair, citing that Drula had signed the documents. Drula said that he did not sign any specification sheet dedicated to Automobile Bavaria. President Klaus Iohannis said that his friendship with businessman Michael Schmidt was not important for winning the tender held by the Romanian police.

The scandal resonates with the debate at the European level regarding Romania’s accession to Schengen, a decision on which is to be made in December by the JAI Council, in which our country is represented by the Minister of the Interior.

Since 2011, Romania has met the technical criteria to join Schengen, but some countries still have reservations. One of them is Holland, whose prime minister visited Romania this week and which did not give a decisive answer regarding the support of our country.

In recent years, countries opposing Romania’s Schengen integration have cited MCV monitoring, where corruption is considered one of the biggest vulnerabilities of the rule of law.

Factual analysis of NLP messages

PNL message:

• “Under the leadership of Ketalin Drula, the USR has become a party, on the contrary, toxic for Romania and the country’s interests today. Joining Schengen is a historic chance, a dream for which Romania has worked hard and deserves. But, unfortunately, the leadership of the Ukrainian Ukrainian SSR and the hooliganism it cultivates in the party deliberately endanger this national task.”

Audit:

• The PNL message contains some true information – joining Schengen, which is the country’s goal and a historic chance for Romania – combined with political statements without factual coverage – USR is a toxic party for Romania and the country’s interests; the hooliganism he cultivates in the party deliberately endangers this national goal.
• The report that the USR opposes Romania’s accession to the Schengen area is false. Katelyn Drula publicly stated on September 11: “We are at the 13th hour. Romania’s accession to Schengen is a goal that Romania supports without reservation. Romania deserves to be in Schengen!”

PNL message:

• “He is fiercely attacking the institutions involved in accession. Cătălin Drula unjustifiably and falsely accuses the auction of special vehicles for the traffic police (attacks on the MAI, IGPR, the President of Romania) and silences the fact that he himself signed the financing agreement when he was the Minister of Transport. The auction was fair and Drula knows it. The proof is the agreement between him and Guinea about the same documents!”

Audit:

• A PNL message contains partially true information mixed with unmasked information in reality. Catalin Drula’s attack was directed at Minister Lucian Bode, not at MAI and IGPR.
• As Minister of Transport, Cătălin Drula signed a contract for a project with European funds entitled “Development of a mixed mobile traffic monitoring system for traffic violations”. “You will not find my signature on any so-called technical details application. The appendix Bode is talking about was drawn up and signed by him and his subordinates,” said the USR leader.
• PNL claims the auction for the police BMWs was legal. USR asked DNA for self-reporting and verification. So far there has been no answer.

PNL message:

• “They baselessly attack the equity laws needed to raise the MCV. The USR management informed the Venice Commission about the new laws on justice without reason, although they are well aware that the current laws contain all the recommendations of the Commission in recent years and were developed after consultations with European partners. The new laws are a key element to abolishing the MCV, a condition for Schengen entry!”

Audit:

• Draft laws on justice, approved by the government and sent to parliament, have been criticized since August by associations of magistrates, who say they “compromise some progress made in the fight against corruption and organized crime”.
• The USR notified the Venice Commission in mid-September to give its opinion on the projects.
• On September 22, the European Commissioner for Justice recommended Romania to wait for the conclusion of the Venice Commission. “I reminded you that the European Commission is in contact with the Romanian authorities to discuss reforms and that I recommend waiting for the opinion of the Venice Commission on the draft laws on justice before adopting them to ensure that they meet European standards. “, said Didier Reynders.
• The real message in the PNL message is that the new laws are a key element in the abolition of the MCV, a condition of entry into the Schengen area.

PNL message:

• “Absolutely illogical and senseless attacks on the Minister of Internal Affairs. Catalin Drula sent people from his party (paid from public money to the institutions of the Romanian state!) to transcribe by hand the thesis of Minister Bode, a work that no scientific authority disputes. The people of Ukraine endlessly repeat that the dissertation is “classified” while they go to the library to rewrite it. Their actions simply defy logic.”

Audit:

• In August, a day before the deadline announced for the full publication of his doctoral thesis on a platform managed by the Ministry of Education, Interior Minister Lucian Bode sent a letter to the university where he defended his thesis, saying that he had withdrawn from the matter. He motivated his decision by the fact that he published his work in a publishing house, which is not true, as it follows from the investigations carried out by G4Media.ro
• Journalist Emilia Serkan, who investigated the phenomenon of plagiarism, wrote on Facebook at the beginning of October that in the National Library “Dr. Bode’s thesis is digitized (…) and can be viewed on a computer without Internet access. Taking screenshots of a precious scientific creation is prohibited.”
• A day later, Christian Guinea announced that USR volunteers would rewrite Interior Minister Lucian Bode’s PhD thesis so that it could be checked for plagiarism. He was in the library together with parliamentarian Julian Bulai.
• The PNL did not provide any evidence that Drula sent “party people who were paid by public money to institutions of the Romanian state” to the library during working hours.

PNL message:

• “He operates fake news (lies called ‘news’) aimed at misleading the public. Then they translate them into English and Brussels promotes them against their own country, against the interests of Romania. The USSR has anti-Romanian behavior and freely criticizes its country in the European Parliament, jeopardizing accession to Schengen.”

Audit:

• PNL does not provide any evidence regarding USR’s translation of some of the “fake news” that would be promoted in Brussels. Until now, HotNews.ro is not aware of such an approach.
• Regarding the “anti-Romanian behavior” and “gratuitous criticism” of Romania in the European Parliament, it should be noted that during the last EP debate on Romania’s accession to Schengen, when far-right German MEP Guido Reil attacked Romania sharply, the only MEP from Romania who responded was Vlad Botosh from USR.

PNL message:

• “Send people to TV stations trained to blindly attack the Romanian state. The leadership of the Ukrainian SSR imposes a message of attack on the Romanian state on the communicators, telling them to continue attacking the ministers, the government, the president, etc. and not “go out into the wind.” The stake is political destabilization and the image of a corrupt Romania. Drula and the leadership of the USSR never talk about Schengen, except as an object of attacks”

Audit:

• Each side has a communication score. The USR assessment quoted by PNL begins with the words “USR unconditionally supports Romania’s accession to Schengen”. Romania and Romanians deserve to be in Schengen.”
• The USR attack, according to the assessment received by the press, is not addressed to the Romanian state, but to Minister Lucian Bode.
• “A corrupt interior minister is jeopardizing this fundamental goal of the country; therefore, Bode should be released immediately; we need a reliable and honest interior minister so that we don’t miss Schengen; if somehow we miss that goal, it’s only because of Yohannis and his clique; don’t run away with the Dutch, they themselves are to blame,” the EDR account shows.

PNL message:

• “This discredits the political class: swearing and broken heads. It is the politicians of the EUDP who are smiling at the current political class of the country. We see the behavior of the UDR senator who smashes a man’s head at the table, we see how the UDR deputy swears at a woman senator who has been cured of cancer and who fights for the rights of patients. – I would break your neck! – says the deputy of the Ukrainian SSR in the Romanian Parliament.

Audit:

• This message is the closest to the truth.
• US Senator Virgil Marius Bob was caught on video hitting a man over the head with a phone during a private event. The latter filed a complaint with the police, which was later withdrawn.
• Indeed, USR MP Emanuel Ungurianu made PNL senator Nicoleta Pawliuk, a cancer survivor, “ridiculous”.
• Emanuel Ungurianu also told his parliamentary colleagues at the same meeting that “if I had cancer, I would cut your throat.”