Overview

• Iliescu died on August 5 after months of treatment for lung cancer at a Bucharest hospital.
• He rose to power immediately after Nicolae Ceaușescu’s execution in December 1989 as Romania’s first freely elected president.
• Iliescu secured reelection in 1992 and 2000 and guided Romania toward NATO membership, achieved in 2004.
• After withdrawing from public life in 2017, he underwent heart surgery in 2019 and received a lung cancer diagnosis in June 2025.
• The Romanian government has offered condolences to his family and officially announced a state funeral in his honor.