With the equivalent of 5 million euros paid by Simion for a month and a half at Realitatea Plus, Trump campaigned on Facebook for three months, in the US and around the world. AEP filed a criminal complaint for the AUR – Realitatea contract
Donald Trump and George Simeon. Photo collage source: Profimedia / Inquam Photos
Of the 69 million lei spent by George Simion in the presidential election campaign in the spring of 2025 (first round and second round), 23.4 million lei went to the Realitatea Plus television station. But Realitatea did not perform according to the contract and AUR paid for advertising that was not performed. The difference between the invoice and the reality was 17 million lei, AEP claims, which led the Authority to file a criminal complaint, writes investigative website Snoop.
Of the 23.4 million lei paid by AUR to Realitatea Plus, which means almost 5 million euros, 1 million euros were paid for a single day of broadcast: May 12, 2025.
“Backstage of the Parallel State” cost AUR 450,000 euros
On that day, almost half of the amount was paid for the show made by Anca Alexandrescu, “Behind the scenes of the Parallel State”. The show lasted 2 hours. Realitatea Plus billed George Simion 450,000 euros for this show. AUR paid and asked for the money to be reimbursed from the budget.
When AEP checked what AUR gave the money to, the Authority found out that Simion was not present on the show – the candidate only appeared for a few minutes, in a remote intervention. This was not the only criterion taken into account by AEP.
AEP claims that, in reality, AUR received electoral advertising worth several thousand euros
Analyzing the content of the show made by Anca Alexandrescu, AEP discovered that it discussed many topics unrelated to George Simion, but were billed as if the whole show was a campaign for the AUR leader.
AEP decided that, out of the 450,000 euros paid by AUR for the edition of “Coulisele Statului Paralel” and which the party asked to be reimbursed, to recognize and reimburse AUR several thousand euros. The rest of the money remains paid by George Simion's party from its own funds.
At the same time, AEP filed a criminal complaint. Simion said, quoted by Snoop, that he will challenge the non-payment in court. The AUR leader claims that the reasons invoked by the Authority are “invented”, and that the AUR is a target for state institutions.
With a little more than the money given by AUR to Reality, Trump campaigned for 3 months on Facebook
Of the nearly 5 million euros paid to Realitatea Plus, AEP did not recognize 3.5 million euros as legal expenses.
What does 5 million euros mean in terms of electoral advertising, not only in Romania?
If in the one and a half month campaign, AUR gave Realitatea Plus 5 million euros, Donald Trump gave 6 million dollars (5.5 million euros) for all his advertising on Facebook, for the last three months of the US presidential elections in November 2024, according to an independent report of the financial company Solomon.
What does 450,000 euros spent on a single show mean?
In November 2024, in the final days of the campaign for his re-election as president, Donald Trump's team spent $18 million on 10,000 spots. That's the equivalent of $1,800 per spot. These are TV prices from the USA, a more expensive advertising market than in Romania.
A calculation shows that for how much AUR paid for the show produced by Anca Alexandrescu, 450,000 euros, in the two hours at Realitatea Plus, 300 spots could have been broadcast, at the price paid by Donald Trump in the USA.
The difference is that while the 300 spots in the US were with Donald Trump, George Simion appeared for a few minutes in the two-hour show from Reality Plus.
A calculation shows that, according to the amount of 450,000 euros paid by AUR for the show produced by Anca Alexandrescu, 300 spots could have been aired during the two hours at Realitatea Plus, at the price paid by Donald Trump on TV in the USA. The full investigation in Snoop.
