My decision to stand for election as an independent MEP was motivated by a desire to provide people in Romania with a genuinely green and progressive option. 

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So I had a clear goal, which I believe in passionately – and a profile in Romania as a consistent champion of progressive politics, which I could leverage in an election campaign. Most importantly of all, I had no idea how hard it was going to be!

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Lesson One – The power of optimism

It sounds obvious, but you have to believe you can win. Later, when energy levels fall and the task seems impossible, it’s vital you have the right team in place to carry you through.

 

I needed to collect 100,000 signatures – on paper – simply to stand in the election. Then I needed to win enough votes to pass Romania’s 3% threshold.

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We started with a handful of volunteers from my personal network – perhaps 150 friends, family members, and former colleagues. We gave them t-shirts and asked them to collect signatures. Then we asked them to recruit their friends and family members to collect signatures.

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We had no access to the mainstream media and I was hardly a star on social media (with roughly 12,000 followers on Instagram, 20,000 on TikTok, and 80,000 on Facebook). Slowly, however, as more and more people saw us on the streets in our green t-shirts, the numbers began to grow. People began to respond to our campaign videos, messaging me on Instagram or Facebook to ask if they could help. We raced to put structures in place to make the process as smooth as possible for our new volunteers – a functional website (where people could donate or leave their contact information), a system of volunteer coordinators, and a network of 30 cafes across the country where people could meet their coordinators, pick up their t-shirts, and drop off their signed forms.

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Among other policies, we advocated for better climate protections, improved access to public transport, housing, and mental health services, and stronger representation for the LGBTQI community. We campaigned on the issues which matter to young people – about which mainstream parties often refuse to say anything constructive at all – and we did it in the spaces where young people live – online, in the streets, and in cafes and bars.

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Lesson Two – Appealing to a sense of fairness works

Our policies resonated with the young. Our supporters – who increasingly get their news (and form their opinions) on social media – were motivated by the prospect of a fresh approach, and a campaign based on hope rather than fear.

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Contacting and organizing online influencers can make a big difference, and we were fortunate that many were attracted by the slightly quixotic nature of our campaign, as well as the causes we stood for. Our followers on social media quadrupled and we were hit by an exhilarating wave of support. Exhilarating, but also exhausting. The number of people collecting signatures had risen from 150 to nearly a thousand, but many were only able to collect 20 or 30 signatures instead of the 100 we’d hoped for. The deadline was rapidly approaching. Every time we thought we’d reached the top of the mountain we found a higher peak waiting in the distance. When we finally reached our target, I’d been up all night, counting and collating the signatures. I called my wife and when I saw her I began to cry. I turned the camera on and filmed a message of thanks to our supporters – in an old t-shirt, emotional, exhausted, and unshaven – because I wanted them to know what it had taken to come so far.

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Lesson Three – People always spot a fake, especially on social media

People are more likely to help a candidate who is honest about needing help, who doesn’t feel the need to project strength all the time, and is willing to share the low moments as well as the triumphs.

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In the blink of an eye, we went from collecting signatures to fighting an election.

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We had momentum. We still had our team of coordinators and volunteers – wearing our t-shirts and doing a fantastic job of explaining our policies. We had help from the ECDA, who provided organizing expertise, helped strengthen fundraising, and provided digital tools. And we had learned that our supporters were young, between 18 and 22 years old – which meant that many would be voting for the first time. Because we knew we couldn’t afford to lose a single vote, we focused our social media efforts on a series of videos breaking down the process of actually casting a vote. To make them as informative as possible, we even converted an outhouse behind our campaign headquarters into a makeshift polling booth!

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Lesson Four – Don’t make assumptions about what people know

Give people the information they need. Break it down for them. Our final video on social media included links to help people find their local polling station in less than a minute.

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None of the polling companies in Romania had included us in their surveys of voters’ intentions, which meant that no one really knew how much support we had – and our opponents were constantly telling people not to waste their votes on us, claiming there was no chance we’d reach the 3% threshold.

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Then, ten days before the election, one polling company finally included us and found that we were polling at 2.6% of the national vote. It was the best thing that could have happened. We knew (and could tell our supporters) that one last push would see us over the line.

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Lesson Five – Make sure people know that every vote counts

That final poll was crucial, but so was ECDA’s idea to multiply votes, which means asking each of our supporters to find five people and encourage them to vote. My special thanks go to all of our supporters who weren’t old enough to vote themselves, but who spent the last week of the campaign canvassing their cousins, aunts, uncles, parents and grandparents on our behalf!