8.4 million lei. This is the largest sum allocated by the PSD in one month for press and propaganda. All the money comes from the state budget, but information about who receives it is a big secret for Marcel Cholak. Last year, the Social Democrats allocated more than 10 million euros to the press.

“If you ask me about money for the press, I don’t know anything”

In the halls of the Parliament Palace, PSD leaders shrug their shoulders: it seems that no one from the party knows where more than eight million lei went in January.

All money is public and PSD must provide specific information about the allocation of funds. But he never did this during the mandate of Marcel Čolaku.

“If you ask me about money for the press, I don’t know anything,” the leader of the Social-Democratic party mechanically answers. They didn’t even have time to ask him about the money PSD allocates to the media every month.

The answers do not vary much, regardless of who is interviewed.

“Honestly, I don’t know! But I will ask!”, another leader of the Social Democrats tells us.

“I don’t know, I always find out about these amounts from you. I don’t know, believe me,” apologizes another prominent member of the SDP leadership.

The public money that the party collects from the state budget looks like a complete mystery.

Last year, PSD collected almost 90 million lei, and more than 55 million helped the party create a favorable image in the press.

The average monthly amount was about 5 million lei.

The party refused to present the sites with which it has contracts through an advertising agency. Unofficially, the leaders of the SDP admit that they paid for the publication of articles on the websites of all TV channels.

Impressive growth in January 2024

The surprise happened at the beginning of 2024, when the amount for the press and propaganda increased significantly.

More than 8.42 million lei (1.7 million euros) were reported to the PSD for press and propaganda, according to data used by Hotnews.ro and provided to the Permanent Electoral Authority. This is the largest amount spent by a political party in a month outside election campaigns.

The subsidy collected in January amounted to 8.5 million lei, which indicates another record in this matter: all state funds went to one category of expenses.

Money for the press and propaganda in January 2024:

• PSD: 8,421,282 lei

• PNL: 4,111,791 lei

• UDR: 1,444,200 lei

• GOLD: 0 lei

At the last press conference on the money given to the mass media, on February 21, Prime Minister Marcel Čolaku did not want to reveal who the beneficiaries of the party money are.

“All over Europe and all over the democratic world, and in the United States and everywhere, it’s used for the public policy of every party,” Çolaku said, noting that the commercials are clearly marked in countries with consolidated democracies.

A similar attitude to the leadership of the PNL, the Ciucă – Bode tandem refuses to present sites paid for by the party. The site digi24.ro collected the largest sums from liberals in 2023.

A miracle on the media market

The amount reported by PSD AEP has also caused a “state of astonishment” in the media market.

“January is a dead month, a month of parliamentary vacations. PSD cuts media funding in half in January. I don’t see how it reached 8.4 million lei, how the amount increased. I’m surprised they paid that much,” a media personality with knowledge of the PSD contract situation tells us.

January was the last month in which the Social Democrats signed a contract with digi24.ro. The management of Digi24 has decided to stop cooperation with PNL and PSD through advertising agencies.

Thus, everything indicated that the amount should have decreased, not increased.

A million euros for vests and campaign pens

After dozens of questions, an unofficial answer came from the Social Democrats. I argue that the money spent on January has a strong propaganda component, not the press.

“In January, five million lei (one million euros) worth of propaganda products were purchased. These are vests, pens, caps and other campaign materials. Four election campaigns are underway, payments have been made. Money for the press decreased in January compared to December,” PSD sources told Hotnews.ro.

Hotnews did not receive an official response from the PSD leadership when asked about the January payments.