News Focus: Online reflection of recent messages by former liberal president Crin Antonescu

Liberal Crin Antonescu, former president of the PNL and former presidential candidate, has returned to public attention in recent weeks with repeated statements on the situation in the party, the relations in the coalition, but especially on the prospects of the Liberal presidential candidate. The media and political analysts have interpreted Crin Antonescu's messages as a delimitation from the current party leadership and a rejection of the PNL's electoral strategy for the presidential election. The former liberal leader's activity began to intensify after the local and European parliamentary elections in June, but especially between July and August.

According to automatic monitoring conducted with NewsVibe - an AI-based social listening tool - the moment in the last three months that generated the most mentions and had the highest estimated impact for Crin Antonescu was August 14, when he launched a harsh attack on the PNL leadership. Subsequently, there were other moments when Crin Antonescu clashed with PNL leaders, including as a result of their reactions to the former liberal leader's criticisms. It should be noted that the main attack lines of the former Liberal leader were initially launched on July 28, but they generated three times fewer hits online compared to the volume of mentions on August 14, when the attack was resumed.

Grafic NewsVibe. Evolution of the volume and impact of mentions of Crin Antonescu in relevant online sources in the last month

Predominant sources

In terms of the most relevant online sources that have mentioned Crin Antonescu's name in the last four months, the Gândul and stiripesurse.ro platforms (represented both through websites and Facebook pages), as well as Facebook channels associated with Antena 3 (including the Sinteza zilei program page) stand out. The Marius Tucă and Digi24 pages also produced many mentions, these being generally media sources where Crin Antonescu made appearances in which he launched attacks or criticized the PNL leadership. The higher number of mentions in these sources indicates their tendency to generate news and Facebook posts from statements made by Crin Antonescu.

Grafic NewsVibe. Top relevant online sources that most frequently referred to Crin Antonescu in the last 4 months

Top keywords mentioned

In terms of the entities most frequently associated with Crin Antonescu's name in articles and Facebook posts, terms such as "Nicolae Ciucă", "PNL", "Klaus Iohannis", but also "Marius Tucă" stand out. These terms are directly associated with Crin Antonescu's attacks on the PNL leadership, reflecting both the criticisms made by the former liberal leader and the media sources where these criticisms were launched.

Another name associated with mentions of Crin Antonescu is "Sebastian Burduja", to whom the former PNL leader said he is giving his vote in the race for the capital's mayoralty.

Graphic NewsVibe. Top entities mentioned in association with Crin Antonescu, in relevant online sources, in the last 4 months.

Emoji and Hashtag

The most commonly used emoji suggest the idea of "breaking news", but also that of "scandal". The most commonly used hashtags include #nicolaeciuca, #ciuca, #pnl, #romaniadorita, alongside #crinantonescu. These hashtags are closely linked to Antonescu's criticism of the liberal leadership, but also to the topic of the presidential elections. It is important to note that the hashtag #romaniadorita is associated with PSD presidential candidate Marcel Ciolacu, indicating a broader context of recent political debates.

Grafic NewsVibe. Top emoji, respectively top hashtags used on Facebook in conversations about Crin Antonescu, in the last 4 months.

Regional activity and interest

In the locally relevant online sources, which include both parliamentarians and local media platforms and influencers, there is a particular interest in the counties in the West of the country, especially in areas where PNL has a high political influence. These sources have shown an increased interest in Crin Antonescu's statements and criticism of the PNL leadership, with a potential impact on local electorates in these regions.

Harta Newsvibe. Locally relevant online sources where Crin Antonescu has been mentioned in the last 4 months

Crin Antonescu's attacks on the PNL leadership are the main topic through which the former liberal leader has managed to return to the public attention recently. In recent months, his critical messages have been more and more intensively mediatized and discussed. This return has focused exclusively on challenging the current direction of the party and its electoral strategy, thus underlining his opposition to the current leadership and involving him in the debates about the political future of the PNL.

***** Synthesis made with the help of a monitoring feed provided by NewsVibe Romania. The analysis, data and images presented were enhanced with the help of Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence tools.