Eastern connections

The death of the Romanian poet Adrian Păunescu, known for his literary support for the former communist dictatorship, is reopening many questions regarding who will be in or out the "national pantheon" of the recent history of this Eastern European country and who will decide the value. In the last hours, the national media praised the value of this poet and "activist for the national cause", and politicians of all colours sent official messages of condolences. Shortly, Păunescu was one of the creators of the club, "Cenaclul Flacăra"/The Flame, using the context of the 60-70s for create emulation among the youth on the side of the party. Late 80s, he used to animate these meetings - with a program of folk shows, poetry clubs - with direct interventions on TV from stadiums across the country. Practically, the old generation of Romanian folk singers - still popular for a generation now in its 60s, but also among some younger hippies, is paying a tribute to Păunescu, as one of their promoter and financial supporter. In these shows, registered on vinyl and listened religiously during communism and thereafter, he was extensively reciting his poetry, with long praised hymns to the dictatorial family and was talking and talking. A close friend to the so-called heir of the Ceausescus, the son Nicu, he was taking part to various parties reserved for the new generation of Communist nomenclature.

His increased popularity, and some scandals he was involved - a rape accusation, an accident while driving drunk - worried the old generation of apparatchik and he slightly acquired a status of "dissident". He limited his public appearances in a review bearing the name of his club, devoting an impressive number of pages to his poetry and various nationalist-populist views, and introduced to a Romanian public opinion lacking basic sanitation and medication various "healers" and alternative medicine "experts".

In the first days after the fall of communism he attempted to found refuge to the US Embassy in Bucharest, but was held hostage for a short while by the "revolutionary" mobs. Then, in the front of the free cameras of the national TV he declared with the same emphasis used to recite his poetry: "I was a pig".

His political and public career continued smoothly in the next decades: he was several times MP and representative of the country to the Council of Europe, from the part of social-democratic party and for the nationalist-extreme party Greater Romania. He hosted several shows and was a frequent presence on private and national TV stations, with opinions regarding (national) culture, history, relations between Romanian and Hungarian minorities, (national) literature.

His sources were the protocronist and national-communist values, sharing perspectives without connections with the European present and values assumed by this country. His poetry was very rich in volume, but with a lot of versifications and improvisations.

The current Romania media lament - with some isolated critical perspectives though - is a testimony of the problematic process of changing mentalities. Death is a natural phenomenon and we don't need to become heroes for fighting against human oblivion and to project ideal past only for being able to survive a precarious present.

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