George Pruteanu

Who was George Pruteanu?

George Mihail Pruteanu was a Romanian literary critic and politician.

His father, Paul Pruteanu, was a medical doctor and a university professor who researched the history of Moldavian medicine. His mother, Sofia Pruteanu, was an office worker. Born in Bucharest, George Pruteanu studied literature at the Universities of Iaşi and Bucharest and, starting in 1972, he wrote various columns for literary magazines such as Convorbiri Literare, Contemporanul, and Cronica.

After the 1989 Revolution, he continued his work as journalist for newspapers such as Expres and Evenimentul Zilei.

Between 1995 and 1999, he was also the host of a 5-minute daily TV programme on correct usage of the Romanian language, which was broadcast first by Tele 7 ABC, then ProTV, TVR1 and again TVR1.

In 1996, he was elected to the Romanian Senate as a Constanţa County Senator on a National Peasants' Party ticket, but resigned in 1998 and in 2000 he was elected once again, this time in Bistriţa-Năsăud County as a member of the Social Democratic Party. In 2003, he resigned from PSD and joined the Greater Romania Party, running for the Senate in Suceava County in 2004.