PSD did not seek to transform the political crisis into a major or harsh event, but on the contrary, it presented the internal referendum against Bolojan rather in the register of a “celebration of democracy”. But something hard to predict happened: the public's attention is huge. Romanians' concern is more similar to that in the face of serious and long-lasting events that impact their lives.
On Tuesday evening, on ProTV News, 35.4% of Romanians present on television watched and listened to Ilie Bolojan. It's an absolutely unusual number. “They listened to him” does not mean “they agreed with him.” But the interest in the political crisis definitely has a name: Ilie Bolojan.
Regardless of whether you are for or against Bolojan, the audience of the political crisis has come to be compared to the “share” collected by the matches of the national football team. However, this comparison is not the most appropriate either. Because the focus on the government crisis is maintained, as if a game were being played a day. It's not like a match, it's like a serious turn of events, like something with a big impact on people's lives.
However, whether we are talking about sports, the war in Ukraine or the US-Iran war, a 35% TV share is very difficult to achieve.
Has the political crisis turned into something else?
This massive momentary attention was not, at all, in PSD's intention. And the christening of the crisis with the name of the PNL president, not so much. Proof is also the reaction of the social-democratic Minister of Health, Alexandru Rogobete, a politician absolutely incapable of refraining from intervening on social networks in any situation, from the delay of a plane to a serious crisis.
Rogobete said, irritated, quoted by Mediafax, that he will sign his resignation soon. And that he has no regrets. Apart from one: the PSD minister said that “all I regret is that the democracy in Romania ended up being in one man”. No, democracy does not depend on one man, obviously.
But every institution is the prolonged shadow of its ruler. Supporters or opponents, right or left, the Romanians looked at the Bolojan Government with more attention than on other occasions.
And the signs shown by the large numbers prove that the collapse of the Bolojan Government multiplied the already special attention of Romanians for this cabinet. The tension in society is increasing, not decreasing. The news cycle didn't last just one day, as happens with almost any political event.
This time, it seems that public attention is focused not as in the case of political “combinations”, but as in the situation of major events. It's as if it turned into something else, a broader debate, less partisan, in the political sense, but more comprehensive.
35% is a very rare “market share”.
A day after PSD announced that it was withdrawing its political support, Ilie Bolojan was present on Tuesday evening, in the Pro TV studio, where he was interviewed by Andreea Esca.
The dialogue was carried out in the first half of Pro TV News, which started as usual at 19:00.
The Esca – Bolojan moment lasted more than 10 minutes, and the TV audience of the entire program of the Pache Protopopescu station recorded a huge level.
According to official measurements, targeting the commercial audience, the one to which a television such as Pro TV is reported, i.e. the population between the ages of 21 and 54, at the national level, the news journal achieved an 8.3% rating. Which was an impressive jump from the previous day's figures.
The night before, that is, on Monday, Stirile Pro TV had only a 5.5% rating, while the volume of viewers on Tuesday, when Bolojan was on set, was more than 50% higher. The rating measures how many televisions, from the total of those existing in Romania, were posted on Pro TV in the respective interval.
And the market share was extraordinary. It passed 35%, which happens quite rarely. This has an even greater relevance than the rating, because it determines how many televisions are on the analyzed program from the total number of televisions open in Romania in that interval.
Practically, for every 15 televisions turned on on Tuesday, between 19:00 and 19:53, more than 7 were on Pro TV, where Andrea Esca's interview with Ilie Bolojan also took place.
Pro TV news, as audience and market share, in the last 4 days
- Saturday: 5.3% rating / 27% share – 3rd place in the hierarchy of TV programs of the day
- Sunday: 5.2% rtg / 25.2 share – 4th place
- Monday: 5.5% rtg / 24.8% share – 4th place
- Tuesday: 8.3% rtg / 35.4 share – 1st place
Compared to the previous Tuesday, the jump made by Știrile Pro TV, thanks to the presence of Ilie Bolojan, was very big. On April 14, the edition presented by Andreea Esca, had only 6.6% rating and 28% share. Last night, the level in both monitoring chapters was at least 25% higher.
ProTV has done more than all 4 televisions
Pro TV's Tuesday newscast, in which 20% of the time was allocated to the interview with Ilie Bolojan, outperformed the competition's audience in that time slot.
Compared to Observator, from Antena 1, Pro TV had a market share almost 3 times higher. And compared to the cumulative audience of the following 4 televisions, A1, Kanal D, Romania TV and Digi 24, ProTv had a surplus of over 30%.
It is true that Pro TV is the number 1 television station in Romania. But in any position and at any event, 35% is very difficult to achieve. An important match of the “national team” in 2025, on Antena 1, Romania – Austria made a share of 36.9%, according to GSP.
When a political crisis is compared to a much more popular event by definition, it means that Romanians see in what is happening these days something more important than a cyclical fall of the government, of which we have one every ten months.
