Election Focus: Online reflection of key messages from Ciolacu's speech

The nomination of Marcel Ciolacu by the PSD Congress as candidate for the Romanian presidency was a major media event. It brought a record number of mentions in the relevant media sources, with last week's event registering a 90% increase in the number of mentions compared to previous weeks.

But Saturday's Saturday's Speech to Congress had a similar media impact in the online space to that previously generated by the confirmation of intent to run. The Congress did nothing but formalize the candidacy of the PSD leader for the presidency of Romania.

According to data analyzed using the media intelligence software NewsVibe, on the day of the PSD Congress, more than 1,100 relevant mentions of the PSD president's name were recorded, with an estimated impact of around 9 million views. In comparison, Marcel Ciolacu's message about his intention to run in the presidential election generated 818 mentions, with an estimated impact of over 9.1 million views. Thus, the impact of the initial announcement was even slightly higher.

During the period analyzed, there were other moments when the PSD President's name was frequently mentioned, generating a significant number of estimated views. These included the PSD President's meetings with the Prime Minister of Hungary and Mircea Geoană, as well as the case of the deaths at the Pantelimon Hospital.

Grafic NewsVibe. Evolution of the volume and impact of mentions of Marcel Ciolacu in relevant online sources over the last month

The fundamental difference, however, is that, unlike a simple announcement of candidacy, the PSD Congress was the first moment in which Marcel Ciolacu presented his presidential plan/project. Up to this point, among the potential presidential candidates, only George Simion has presented a presidential program formula.

We further analyze how the PSD president managed to push topics from his speech in the media by extracting the main themes that the PSD president conveyed during his speech.

Prevailing sources. Who talked about Marcel Ciolacu's speech

In recent days, among the online sources that most frequently mentioned Marcel Ciolacu's name and his speech at the Congress, the news websites PSNews, Realitatea.net, ziare.com, Gândul, Antena 3, as well as Facebook pages associated with media platforms such as Libertatea or Antena 3 stand out.

Grafic NewsVibe. The top relevant online sources that most frequently referred to Marcel Ciolacu's speech between August 23-27

Top keywords mentioned. Visible themes from Marcel Ciolacu's speech

The terms most frequently associated with PSD President Marcel Ciolacu's speech in articles and posts from relevant online sources include "Klaus Iohannis," "PNL," "Nicolae Ciucă," "presidential candidate," as well as "George Simion," "PSD," and "Romania."

Attacks on Iohannis are among the most frequently mentioned themes in the relevant news stories, a sign that this polemical component has mattered and will matter. These associations reflect the way these sources interpreted the speech in the context of the PSD Congress, where Social Democratic leaders focused on criticizing the governing partners and positioning the party in the run-up to the upcoming elections. Using the NewsVibe NewsVibe tool, we find that, among the themes addressed by the PSD president in his speech, the following messages were particularly taken up:

• The announcement of the presidential candidacy and Marcel Ciolacu's assumption that "he will be a president for all Romanians": This was a central theme and was picked up in the most relevant web sources. Most sources noted that Ciolacu formalized his candidacy for the 2024 presidential elections, emphasizing that he will be a "president for all Romanians".
• Criticism of the mandates of Presidents Iohannis and Băsescu: Another point of intense discussion was Marcel Ciolacu's criticism of the current and former presidents, whom he accused of having turned the presidential office into a source of frustration and neglected the needs of citizens.
• Re-industrialization of Romania: His economic plan, which includes the re-industrialization of the country, was another topic discussed in the most relevant web sources. Marcel Ciolacu stressed the need to revitalize industry and the partnership between the state and the private sector to stimulate the economy.
• Message to the Diaspora: His proposals to offer tax exemptions to Romanians in the Diaspora who return to the country were picked up by several web sources, some of which also accused the PSD of having had an attitude towards the Diaspora over the years.
• Rejecting Romania's involvement in armed conflicts and maintaining support for Ukraine: Several sources noted the emphasis on maintaining distance from Russia and support for Ukraine, as well as ambitions to strengthen Romania's position in the region and internationally.

Graphic NewsVibe. Top entities mentioned on August 23-27 in association with Marcel Ciolacu's speech, in relevant online sources.

From the actual speech, we note that there are also themes stated, but which did not produce a significant number of mentions in the relevant press headlines. These include:

• The announcement of the successful internal party reform
• Deciding on the composition of the lists for the fall elections
• Messages to the younger generation
• Foreign policy signals on external partnerships

Emoji and hashtags

The most commonly used emoji suggest the idea of "breaking news", but also "mobilization". At the same time, the most popular hashtags reflect an increased interest in the tense relationship between PSD and PNL, generated by the attacks launched by the Social Democrats against their governing partners at the Congress.

Grafice NewsVibe. Top emoji, respectively top hashtags used on Facebook in conversations about Marcel Ciolacu's speech, August 23-27.

Regional activity and interest

In locally relevant online sources, which include both parliamentarians and media platforms, it can be seen that Marcel Ciolacu's speech generated particular attention in counties in Muntenia, such as Olt, Dolj, Constanța and Dâmbovița. In these areas, the interest in the PSD leader's messages was more pronounced, probably due to the party's traditional influence in these regions and the involvement of local leaders in party activities. On the other hand, interest in the speech was significantly lower in the counties in the West of the country. And in Moldova, the only areas that mattered were Iasi and Botoșani.

Harta Newsvibe. Locally relevant online sources that mentioned Marcel Ciolacu's speech on August 23-27.

Marcel Ciolacu's speech during the PSD Congress had a visible but not exceptional impact in the online space, reflected both in the number of mentions and in the reactions generated. Data analysis shows that the main themes in the speech, such as criticism of Presidents Iohannis and Băsescu, the re-industrialization of Romania, messages addressed to the diaspora and the position on the conflict in Ukraine, were picked up in the most relevant online sources. These topics were discussed in the wider context of the PSD Congress, not all of them being highlighted in the headlines of articles and posts about the Social Democrats' event.

*****Summary compiled using a monitoring feed provided by NewsVibe Romania. The analysis, data and images presented were enhanced with Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence tools.