What you are missing is the larger picture: all other candidates failed to be convincing. The socialists and liberals pushed straight-up bad candidates. The progressive party pushed a small-town mayor lady.

A lot of voters were still asking each other, mere days prior to Sunday, who to vote for...

It's an entertainment platform that can be used even by technologically illiterate people, just swipe and swipe. Much like Instagram.

It caught on in all social strata. The seeds have been planted long ago. All this man needed was a concerted spam campaign, which his minions executed very well.

Timișoara did not have bike lanes, nor Profi stores, right after the fall of the Iron Curtain. No idea where you got this from, but it's misinformation.

Btw, the source of the photo is maybe bsky.app/profile/brut... ?

That is a bit overdramatic, isn't it? Democracy itself is fine, people voted for a nasty dude out of their own free will.

The question is why the brainrot of TikTok is still allowed to interfere in elections. Some technologies make for an uneven playing field, and it shows.

This guy's ascension took a LOT of people by surprise. He pretty much flew under the radar, just spamming TikTok with bot accounts, and only showing his good side there. And just for a week prior to elections.

Most voters did not even know who t.f. he is until the vote counts started coming in (!).