Romanian poet Adrian Paunescu has passed away today

Newsroom 05/11/2010 | 15:01

A prominent figure in communist Romania, Adrian Paunescu, aged 67, has passed away early this morning, due to cardiac, kidney and liver conditions.

Paunescu was regarded as a controversial personality after the fall of communism, being considered by many as solely an author of laudatory poems at the address of dictator Nicolae Ceausescu. However, the poet has defined a generation through the literary circle Flacara that he established and lead throughout the 1970s and early 1980s, but from which he was cast out after reportedly writing a poem against the communist government, as Mediafax newswire reports.

After the fall of communism, Paunescu continued his work as a publicist and became involved in politics. In the year 2000, Paunescu was elected as a PDSR (former denomination of PSD, the current Social Democratic Party) senator in Dolj, a town where he grew up, to afterwards continue a new mandate in Hunedoara in 2004, when he also held presidency for the Culture Commission. The poet has also written the anthem for local football teams, Rapid Bucuresti and Universitatea Craiova.

Paunescu will be buried at Bellu cemetery in Bucharest, on the Writers’ Alley, as the capital city’s mayor, Sorin Oprescu has stated today, quoted by Mediafax.