“Where are the miners to quench the chat?”. Iliescu's funeral in the age of video platforms and social networks
The next day of the state funerals organized in honor of former President Ion Iliescu, at Cotroceni Palace, August 7, 2025. Inquam Photos / George Călin
Irverent, excessive and unprepared for being statistically representative, YouTube and comments have outlined another reality of the first president of Romania on Thursday.
Three times President of Romania, Ion Iliescu was buried on Thursday at the Ghencea Military Cemetery, in a live ceremony by Hotnews on the YouTube platform, from the TVR transmission. The transmission itself was simple to take over, because there were technical problems. In the era post truth, the technology also has inevitable syncope.
The comments section of the live transmission has become a living arena of contrasting reactions. Hundreds of people commented in real time, leaving messages that have been swinging between sincere tributes and harsh criticism, the euphemism of the century for the hardness that the Internet is capable of.
“Lord forgive and rest our former president chosen by the people Ion Iliescu,” a user wrote. A few seconds, another replied: “Maniu does not take a grave and you take it with a band?!”.
The absence of President Nicușor Dan
“He went to Hitler and Stalin …”, another user comments. “Piedone to control here to see if he is alive,” jokes an internet. This is the “cannibal” spirit of video platforms and social networks.
“At times, everyone to look at his heart. God forgive you (you, haters),” writes a user. “God has no reason to forgive us, those who tell the truth about Iliescu's crimes,” someone else replies.
“I have not heard in the states of Europe not to come to the funerals of these dignitaries (the function obliges them),” observes a lady. This is about the absence of the president in office, Nicușor Dan.
Although he was not officially convicted of any of the charges, in relation to the main two events for which he was investigated-the file of the revolution of 89 and that of the Mining of June 90-Chat commentators do not hesitate to make him responsible.
“Criminal to haunt you in the grave, the soul of the heroes killed by you at the Revolution and Mining,” someone writes. “As bad as Romania does not receive the land,” says another user.
Dozens of users are unhappy that state funerals have been organized and that public money has been spent. “To draw at work next month to cover these honors,” someone says in the chat.
HotNews has constantly moderated comments in YouTube chat, and users have been announced that some messages can lead to the possibility of commenting. “Let us swear to us last time,” an active Internet use told us. “Where are the miners to quench the chat?” Adds someone else.
What happened these days worked as a mirror of Romanian collective memory: fractured, contradictory, intense.
Romania, over three decades after the Revolution, continues to digest its past. The death of Ion Iliescu seems to have reopened not only a historical chapter, but also a deep wound.
In an era in which the mourning lives not only in cemeteries, but also in video and emoji flows, Thursday's ceremony was more than a farewell. It was a national debate. A conversation transmitted live, angry and juxtaposed, but anyway closer to the nature of the term than the same word “debate” in the recent election campaign, when the two finalists met only once.
