
Tensions in the governing coalition, the preparation for a new electoral episode in Bucharest and the government's themes have deeply marked the visibility of the main parties in the digital environment over the last week. According to the data collected and analyzed by NewsVibe, an AI media monitoring platform, PSD, USR and PNL have increased their exposure in the digital environment, compared to the previous analyzed interval.
Discussions about PSD's role in the coalition, stemming from the dispute with USR over Ion Iliescu's funeral, Titus Corlățean's candidacy for the Social Democratic party's leadership, as well as the intensification of discussions on the race for the Capital's mayoralty, with Sebastian Burduja's proposal to organize primary elections, have been visible themes in the last few days, alongside echoes of the former president's death and government topics, such as the Pillar 2 pension or the financing of highway construction.
The biggest increases in visibility were seen by PSD and USR, with the Liberals remaining in third place, while AUR and UDMR registered losses in terms of online mentions, with the party led by George Simion ending the week on an upward trend.
NEWSVIBE CHART. Top 5 parties by volume of mentions in relevant online and social media sources (sources validated by the NewsVibe platform), in the last week.
COMPETITIVE VISIBILITY AND IMPACT. The competitive analysis engine created by NewsVibe evaluates the strength of political actors to penetrate the online space, directly compared to their competitors.
The total volume of mentions about the five main parties has increased compared to the previous week, with almost half of them about PSD, 24% - about USR and 20% - about PNL. Liberals, on the other hand, enjoy a slightly higher share in the "impact" category - 24%.
After the amplification observed in the previous analysis on the occasion of the visit to Broșteni, the share of mentions about the AUR party has again compressed to 5%, most of these mentions being generated by an impact event - the statements of the leader Simion about the prospect of a government with PSD.
NewsVibe charts. Share of the number of mentions (left) and impact of mentions (right) about each of the parties, respectively, out of the cumulative total of mentions about all five
NETWORK ANALYSIS. The tool created by NewsVibe - semantic network analysis - uses advanced artificial intelligence and machine learning methods to build maps of interactions that highlight: the central actors in a conversation, the connections between them, the groups (clusters) of topics, concepts and influencers (personalities and organizations) that have formed around an event, topic or idea.
Grafic NewsVibe. Semantic network semantics associated with online conversation about the main 5 parliamentary parties in the last week
What the analysis shows:
- The most consistent area of debate was organized around the protagonists PSD (the dominant node in this week's network), USR and Ion Iliescu, illustrating the continuation of the dispute between the two parties starting from the topic of national mourning, prolonged with the discussion about the non-participation and later the decision of PSD's return to the coalition meetings, with Sorin Grindeanu - prominent actor.
- The PNL segment of the discussion had a double thematic development - governance, with Ilie Bolojan and PNRR in the foreground, and the development of the topic related to the Bucharest elections, with Sebastian Burduja visible.
- A distinct thematic nucleus emerged from the statement of AUR leader George Simion, related to the prospect of his party entering government in the fall, following a no-confidence motion, and the indirect appeal to PSD to accept a joint government led by Călin Georgescu.
- A peripheral but distinct topic was related to Moldova, starting with the conflictual exchanges in the coalition over the continuation of work on the A7 and A8 highways; PSD MP Marius Budăi stood out for criticizing Prime Minister Bolojan.
SENTIMENT. The NewsVibe platform has created an advanced automated sentiment analysis system that uses specially trained AI algorithms and LLM tools to detect nuances of tone - favorable, unfavorable or neutral - in the context of references to entities relevant to an online conversation.
Grafic NewsVibe. Automated online conversation tone ratings of the top 5 parliamentary parties by week
What the analysis shows:
- As before, PSD (mostly) and USR were the political actors most frequently mentioned in negative contexts, amid tensions and confrontational exchanges, followed - at a considerable distance - by PNL.
- Government and Ilie Bolojan, as well as PSD leader Sorin Grindeanu also had exposure in predominantly unfavorable contexts.
- Nicușor Dan was mentioned in a negative tone almost 4 times more frequently than in a positive tone.
- Ion Iliescu and Titus Corlățean were among the predominantly positive entities.
- NATO, European Union and Moldova also enjoyed favorable exposure in the party discussion.