It is currently difficult to say what the truth is in the Geoană scandal – Tal Hanan, the high-caliber specialist in electoral manipulation online, with bots, troll farms, server walls, and the whole shebang.
Currently, the concrete evidence presented in the case does not go beyond the level of potential clues.
Ms. Lasconi published three photos: one with Tal Hanan in front of a fence, not entering or exiting through a gate; a picture of the empty fence with the explanation that it belongs to the courtyard of the Aspen Foundation headquarters; a photo, not clear if from the same day as the previous ones, with Mr. Geoană and a lady in the respective courtyard, therefore behind the fence.
None of them provide any evidence of a meeting between Mircea Geoană or anyone from his staff and Tal Hanan, let alone a contract between the two, and Mr. Geoană vehemently denies any connection.
If by the end of the campaign there are proofs of a meeting, the news will no longer be about the farms working for Mr. Geoană, which most Romanians do not understand, although it sounds very sexy, but about Mr. Geoană's lie, something that anyone can understand and would be devastating. But, as I mentioned, what we have so far is inconclusive.
However, the most interesting aspect is the speed with which Marcel Ciolacu rushed to take up the topic and develop it, talking about “a building” with “a lot of servers. Bot farms for Geoană”.
If he knew about all this, it is very serious that he did not feel the need to do something, not only because Mr. Geoană would be the most dangerous opponent if he reaches the final, but because the Prime Minister of Romania has not only the right but the obligation to intervene with all legal means to protect the fairness of the electoral process in Romania.
Only now did Mr. Ciolacu request competent institutions to investigate, institutions that seem to be caught off guard. Neither the AEP chief nor the Minister of the Interior seemed to know anything about servers and buildings.
An investigation is certainly necessary. Tal Hanan has been in Romania, and it is unlikely that it was, as he himself claims, a tourist visit, so it needs to be determined if he had any involvement.
The origin of the photos presented by Ms. Lasconi remains strange. She writes on Facebook that they are from "journalist friends". An explanation that has rightly outraged several journalists who cannot be accused of complicity with Mr. Geoană, for example, Emilia Șercan and Ovidiu Vanghele.
Valeriu Nicolae was also extremely critical.
What does it mean to have journalists as friends with a presidential candidate?
A journalist who no longer works and documents to provide information to the public in the public interest, but works and documents in the political interest of a candidate betrays the moral foundation of the profession. This is exactly what Ms. Lasconi's party and its electorate have repeatedly and vehemently accused a good part of the press of.
It is disarming that many of those who are uncompromising with the PSD and PNL-affiliated press have jumped with pitchforks and axes to demonize those who asked Ms. Lasconi to clarify who her friends are.
If indeed the source is friends from the press, it means that the toxic phenomenon of campaign journalists, who do not work for the public but for candidates, and thus politically, is widespread in the applause of those who otherwise accuse the press of not being free.
There is also the possibility that the source was a professional surveillance, possibly from authorized institutions who knew that Tal Hanan was coming to Romania and followed him.
I do not believe that Ms. Lasconi is working hand in hand with such institutions, I do not believe she hired detectives, but rather she may have been used, counting on the fact that she would take the bait, so that the photos would become public with a big scandal, in the interest of another candidate who immediately jumped on the bandwagon, a candidate who we can truly believe has some support and information from one institution or another.
In other words, not everything that flies is edible.