Experiment: I asked 10 strangers what they think of Nicușor Dan and George Simion after seeing them in the clips on Tiktok

Celine lives 60 kilometers from Paris, works at the airport and voting George Simion. Tamar is a lawyer in Tbilissi and, on the contrary, he would choose Nicușor Dan. They both have in common that they never walked in Romania.

If in this election campaign you spent more time on Tiktok you could find that many people do not know what to think and do in reality Nicușor Dan and George Simion. He judges the candidates exclusively from the perspective of some breaks of statements, often removed from the context, which they have seen distributed by others. That is why I thought about doing an experiment: to ask some strangers on the Internet to analyze the candidates in the presidential elections only in the light of some videos representative with the two.

First I made a selection of campaign videos on their tiktok channels. The hardest thing was to find statements to be in the mirror, if possible on the same subject (or similar topics). For example, we chose discussions with the Romanians from Nicușor Dan and George Simion or the answers they gave on certain topics on the only TV debate they participated together, the one from Euronews.

I translated their answers, subtitled and packaged in an online toy. Nicușor Dan became a candidate A and George Simion became candidate B.

Ten foreigners from France, the Netherlands, India, Italy, the United States, Argentina, Georgia, Cyprus, Poland, Spain and Poland viewed a selection of 12 tiktoks in the mirror and gave notes to each candidate. I found the people who answered the questions with the help of former faculty colleagues in the UK or with the help of the editorial colleagues.

George Simion received high grades for speech dedicated to young

Luca was born in Italy, but for nine years he has lived in the UK. He is 27 years old and works as Software Engineer. He gave note 5 out of 5 to Simion for the speech dedicated to the young people of Tiktok, while Nicușor Dan gave him note 3.

Luca considered that there was equal in the match between two videos in which the two candidates explain how they will be attacked by the system.

“I will become the target of the system (…) will invent things about me, a lot of beletristic will be written,” said George Simion in a Tiktok from the beginning of the election campaign. “In order to cover this reality, he throws us with different misery and misinformation,” said Nicușor Dan, on the other side.

At the final question – “Based on the videos presented, who did you vote?” – Luca voted on Nicușor Dan.

Gabriela is 22 years old and was born in Warsaw, Poland. He lived there all his life until he went to college in Groningen, the Netherlands. He studies political science and works as an English teacher. She gave her grade 4 out of 5 Simion for the video with the young people, and Nicușor noted it with 3.

While we will put the stamp for the second round on Sunday, the Poles will vote for the first round. Gabriela told me she would vote with Adrian Zanberg, the left candidate.

At the final question, Gabriela chose Nicușor Dan: “It seems more approachable; I also agree with him regarding the problem of the civil partnership.”

Celine, 34, from France would contradict Gabriela. “Candidate B (George Simion) has a more nationalist point of view, the national preference seems to be its vision and not the European Union.”

The theme of the civil partnership brought three votes to Nicușor Dan

In addition to Gabriela, Tamar – the 24 -year -old lawyer from Georgia – said in his argument that George Simion lost his vote because of his anti LGBTQ position.

“Due to Pro Netanyahu, Anti-LGBTQ and anti-EU positions, which I heard from candidate B (GS), I would vote for the A (ND) candidate. However, honestly, if some videos were not part of the questionnaire, I would most likely have voted for candidate B. I think the candidate's videos seemed to have more forced, because A little at candidate B, ”Tamar said.

Leti is 39 years old and 10 works as a journalist in Buenos Aires. He told me that if there were elections in Argentina, the center-left party would vote.

“To be honest, I don't like any, but when one of them said that marriage is only between a man and a woman, I realized that I could not vote for him, even when he defended Netanyahu,” Leti said.

Diaspora visits were appreciated

Ruben is 32 years old and lives not far from Barcelona. He is a teacher and the feeling of leaving home is not a stranger to him. He lived a year in the UK, where he worked in a restaurant, in the kitchen. He gave great grades to both candidates for the videos in which the two made visits to the diaspora.

And Josh, at the age of 19, is part of the Diaspora Cypriot. He left home to study in the Netherlands. In the “match” regarding the visits in the diaspora, it had as a favorite of Nicușor Dan.

“The approach of the candidate (Nicușor Dan) was less aggressive and asked constructive questions. It also seems more sociable. The only thing he lacks is the vigor in his speeches,” said Josh from Cyprus.

Debates seem to help a little

Summit was born in India, but for 15 years he has lived in the UK. He is 35 years old and is head of a post office in a British community. He was convinced to choose Nicușor Dan because of his performance at the Euronews debate.

Yassin is of Sudanese origin, but was born and grew up in Groningen, the Netherlands. He is 23 years old and I only lived there. He is a full -time student in life sciences and technology.

“Candidate B has appealed more to the public's emotions than explaining his policies (…) It is clear that he has traditional Christian values, but I do not think that these values ​​are translated well in the management of a country,” said Yassin.

Conclusions about the experiment

I left in this endeavor from a personal curiosity and, of course, this article has no sociological relevance. At least in theory, no one should choose the president after a few videos seen on Tiktok.

But I did not expect the ease with which some strangers were willing to break 15-20 minutes of life for something they had nothing to win.

For us, however, those who have the right to vote on Sunday, the 15-20 minutes as they took us to the nearest voting section, would not be too much effort.