The final debate of the 2025 presidential campaign will be broadcast live by Antena 3 CNN starting at 20:00 PM, bringing together almost all the candidates in an intense exchange of ideas about security, the economy and the rule of law, leaving the electorate only four days to decide before the first round scheduled for Sunday, May 4.
Nicusor Dan, Elena Lasconi, Crin Antonescu, Daniel Funeriu will certainly be present at the 2025 presidential debate, which takes place in the CA Rosetti room of the Palace of Parliament, a room chosen to emphasize the weight of the electoral stakes and to allow the presence of a small audience, selected together with the electoral authority.
This is the third debate hosted in as many nights, after the confrontations on DIGI 24 and TVR 1, a sign of a media strategy aimed at maintaining the tension of the campaign. After criticism regarding the exclusion of some competitors, the station decided this morning to invite all eleven candidates, modifying the format, which initially favored six names.
Format and participants
The moderator is Mihai Gâdea, assisted by three other reporters specializing in public policy, foreign affairs and justice. The program began at 18:45, preceded by a special edition launched at 17:00, which extended the broadcast to over four hours of transmission.
The structure includes video interventions from eight cities, where citizens asked questions about inflation, pensions and support for Ukraine. George Simion, the leader of AUR, and former Prime Minister Victor Ponta will be absent, citing a hostile climate, and independent Sebastian Popescu withdrew for logistical reasons, leaving only eight competitors on stage.
Fight on ideas and counters, less on people
Crin Antonescu and Nicușor Dan captured, by far, most of the attention in the debates on DIGI 24 and TVR 1, but not with ideas and plans for Romanians, but with small disputes based on various older, or newer, "discoveries" from their pasts.
Unfortunately, both Crin Antonescu and Nicușor Dan stood out less for Romania's ideas for change, but perhaps in this last debate on Antena 3, things will be different, if it is not a lynching similar to the one on DIGI 24.
Elena Lasconi also tried to make herself noticed through attacks on Nicușor Dan, after some USR members organized a "party coup" to steal power and direct support resources towards the Mayor General of Bucharest, but also with some criticism against PSD-PNL-UDMR.
Victor Ponda was the target of many attacks on TVR 1, without convincing answers, given his past full of lies, while George Simion avoids entering into a direct debate with the other 3 candidates, clearly superior to him in all respects, preferring to travel around the country, "preaching Georgescu's word".
Low interest in candidates without vision
Audience monitoring shows that the TVR debate, broadcast the night before, attracted 97 viewers on the commercial segment, while Antena 000 accumulated 3 for its own rebroadcast, a threshold that the producers hoped to exceed on Wednesday.
The INSCOP poll published a few hours before the broadcast places Simion at 29 percent, followed by Antonescu at 27 and Dan at 24, with Lasconi at 10 and Ponta at 8. Analysts warn that the Romanian electorate penalizes repeated absences from debates, a phenomenon that could erode Simion's lead and alter the runoff equation.
The problem is that these opinion polls are as accurate as weather forecasts, failing to take into account the combinations of major political parties, which transfer votes to opposing candidates based on their own interests, as happened in the first round of the presidential elections in Romania.
