The Romanian presidential elections of 24 November 2024 produced the unexpected shock of the so-called TikTok candidate. Remembering what happened one year ago might offer a broader perspective to understand what’s next.
Although initially credited with only a few percentage points in pre-election polls, Călin Georgescu emerged as the leading challenger after the first round. A previously marginal public figure, Georgescu rapidly transformed into a first-rank contender, propelled by an overwhelming wave of social media content that portrayed him almost as a messianic figure across TikTok, Facebook, YouTube, and other platforms.
At the same time, mainstream parties contracted communication agencies to run extensive influence campaigns – carefully labelled as non-political, since TikTok officially prohibits political advertising.In contrast, Georgescu repeatedly claimed that he spent zero money on his campaign. Warnings regarding these dynamics had already been issued by…
