Gold demanded the deletion of Cristian Tudor Popescu's posting, announcing who he votes with. The decision made by the bulb
The Alliance for the Union of Romanians (Gold) asked the Central Electoral Bureau (BEC) to eliminate the Facebook post in which the newspaper Cristian Tudor Popescu announced that he will vote in the first round of the presidential elections in May on Crin Antonescu, but the institution decided, in Tuesday's meeting, not to ask for a social network,.
“The material loaded on April 14 on the very large online platform Facebook by the user with the name Cristian Tudor Popescu and the CTPOPESCU indicative – found at the next URL (…) – represents a political opinion expressed in a journalistic approach, so that it cannot be considered a political advertising material,” BEC motivated.
“From the analysis of the content of the post available at the mentioned URL, it appears that the respective material does not represent political advertising material within the meaning of art. 16 paragraph 5 of the Government Emergency Ordinance no. 1/2025”, the institution mentions.
The journalist Cristian Tudor Popescu announced on Monday, April 14, with whom he intends to vote in the presidential elections. The newspaper stated, in the message published on his Facebook page, that he will put the stamp on the common candidate of the ruling coalition, Crin Antonescu, given that he “has to choose” between him and the general mayor of the Capital, Nicușor Dan, and explained his decision.
“The elections of May 4 and May 18 will take place at the established deadlines. And the undersigned I decided with whom I will vote in the first round. I have a choice between Nicușor Dan and Crin Antonescu. I think that the first chance of defeating the Romanian Mîrga is Crin Antonescu,” the journalist wrote, in a post. “In addition, Antonescu, as he is, with qualities and defects, is superimposed with himself, has no rest,” added Cristian Tudor Popescu (CTP).
In his message, the newspaper evoked “something dark and cold” in relation to the mayor of the capital, which causes him not to vote Nicușor Dan. “In Nicușor Dan, however, I feel that there is something dark and cold, which he always strives to keep him hidden,” said CTP. “Not to mention the fact that until he struggles with the Anti-Eu, anti-Romanian and anti-republica Moldova, who wants to cut all the aids, the mayor of the capital has to cope with Lasconi and part of the USR,” said the journalist, in his post.
On Tuesday, the Central Electoral Bureau announced that it had ordered the removal from the social networks of over 600 posts as they represented electoral propaganda, without compliance with the legal norms. They have eliminated materials posted both on the accounts of candidates or some persons chosen or appointed in public dignity, as well as posts of individuals without chosen functions.
“Between April 4-12, 2025, a number of 175 decisions to admit the complaints regarding political advertising materials with illegal content, respectively 104 rejection decisions, were issued,” said the BEC. In the case of 41 complaints admitted, posts of natural persons who do not have “elective functions or other public functions were targeted, but they are political actors”.
The total number of materials eliminated from social media platforms is 609. In the case of 149 of them, it is about electoral messages of natural persons without public functions, but considered “political actors”, the bulb said.
Through another statement, issued on Tuesday, BEC stated the reasons based on the decisions to eliminate some posts on the accounts of persons who are not candidates or do not hold public dignity functions.
Essentially, the office said that the repetitive posts on the accounts of some natural persons give them the quality of “political actors”, in which case they must submit to the rules related to the marking of the electoral propaganda messages.
“Through a constant and coherent practice from the beginning of the election campaign, confirmed by the court, the BEC has ruled that, in situations where natural persons who do not have elective functions or other public functions post on personal accounts, opened on very high online platforms, mainly and repetitive, aspect directly and directly by the Electoral, Political actors with potential for influencing the electorate, activating, in charge of the posts, the obligation to label the respective materials for the purpose of warning and informing the public regarding the character of political advertising material of the posting, the lack of proper labeling by qualifying the material as having an illegal content, ”explained the BEC, in a CRISTI
Recently, Nicuşor Dan accused censorship bulb, after more than 150 politically unaffiliated Romanian citizens had the deleted posts from the social platforms, because they expressed opinions about the candidates in the presidential elections.
Thus, BEC decided, following a complaint filed by gold, to delete some posts made on Facebook by former judge Cristi Danileţ, on the grounds that the messages published by him represent “political advertising”.
