September 16, 2025. Viral topics on the net in the last 24 hours

Developments surrounding the sovereignist movement, the war in Ukraine, and the situation in education were central topics of interest for the public who informed themselves yesterday through social media. The conclusions refer to the first 100 viral press headlines based on the volume of interactions generated on Facebook the previous day.

A significant volume of engaging headlines was generated by the internal political area related to the AUR party. At the center of attention was George Simion, with several articles about the criminal complaint initiated in response to the threats received [epochtimes-romania.com; partidulaur.ro; Realitatea; aktual24.ro]. Also mentioned were the symbolic moments initiated by AUR, such as the moments of silence in Parliament for Charlie Kirk [Stirile PROTV; epochtimes-romania.com], as well as political disputes, with Mihail Neamțu calling for the sanctioning of a USR deputy [epochtimes-romania.com]. The name of Călin Georgescu emerged as a possible candidate for taking over the leadership of the party and a presidential candidacy [RomaniaTV].

The themes of geopolitics and security, dominated by Russia and Ukraine, were also visible. The incident of drones entering Romanian territory generated multiple articles with divergent reactions: accusations from the Russian Embassy [mariustuca.ro; RomaniaTV; Stirile PROTV; investigatoria.ro], internal political counter-reactions [Stirile PROTV; epochtimes-romania.com], and European statements by Ursula von der Leyen [Stirile PROTV]. The context was completed by warnings from Moscow that NATO would be directly involved in the war [biziday.ro]. Also fitting into this thematic picture were Traian Băsescu's comments regarding threats at Romania's border [ziaristii.com].

The third block of topics was that of education. The statements of Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan regarding the increase in teaching norms and criticism of the increase in scholarships were visible [edupedu.ro; epochtimes-romania.com] in the context of the debate on the simple motion against Minister Daniel David [edupedu.ro].

Beyond politics, the announcement of actor Victor Rebengiuc's retirement after 70 years of career [epochtimes-romania.com], the musical park project in Satu Mare [presasm.ro], the introduction of pet access in the Cluj-Napoca City Hall [cluju.ro], and the inauguration of new international flights from Oradea [bihon.ro] completed the picture with topics from a more relaxed register.

ARTICLES WITH HIGH VIRALITY

1. Călin Georgescu, rumored to take over the AUR party. The sovereignist is heading towards a new candidacy for the presidential elections [ROMANIATV]
2. Mihail Neamțu calls for the sanctioning of a USR deputy for calling him an "infect Putinist propagandist" [EPOCHTIMES-ROMANIA.COM]
3. AUR files a criminal complaint for threats against George Simion: He was the target of a wave of hateful threats on social media [EPOCHTIMES-ROMANIA.COM]
4. The extreme left wants blood. AUR files a criminal complaint for threats against George Simion [PARTIDULAUR.RO]
5. Ursula von der Leyen: Russia's incursion into Romanian airspace is a flagrant violation of EU sovereignty [STIRILE PROTV]
6. Two of the girls injured in the accident at Pătrăuți are in a deep coma [NEWS BUCOVINA]
7. Prime Minister Bolojan, speech in defense of the Minister of Education, at the motion against Daniel David: These measures were proposed in Education not by the minister, but by a coalition, to make the system more efficient, but that is not reform. There will no longer be 16 or 18 hours of teaching per week, but 20. A country that lives on debt wants to remain with the lowest teaching norms or to raise them to a decent level? [EDUPEDU.RO]
8. A flood of "sovereignist" apologies on the page of the Russian Embassy mocking the Romanian state [INVESTIGATORIA.RO]
9. "A deliberate provocation by Ukraine": The Russian Embassy in Bucharest accuses Kiev after the intrusion of a drone into Romania [MARIUSTUCA.RO]
10. Cheek from Moscow. The Russian Embassy, regarding the drone that entered Romania: "A deliberate provocation by the regime in Kiev" [ROMANIATV]

***** Synthesis made with the help of a monitoring flow provided by the team NewsVibe Romania, based on several online monitoring software. The ranking of viral links is measured based on the number of interactions generated on Facebook by topics from the Romanian online press. Virality is measured by the cumulative number of likes, comments, and shares obtained by various links over the course of a day. 

We can observe, every time, that the virality of a link is not directly proportional to the overall impact of an online source. Often, links from local sources or niche pages can obtain significantly more interactions than traditional media sources. 

The analysis, data, and images presented have been enhanced with the help of Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence tools.