Democratic Nationalist Party (Romania)

The Democratic Nationalist Party or Nationalist Democratic Party (, PND) was a political party in Romania, established by historian Nicolae Iorga (who was also its longest-serving leader) and jurist A. C. Cuza. Its support base was in the lower reaches of the Romanian middle class, and, especially through Cuza's ideology, it reflected the xenophobia, economic antisemitism, and producerism of that particular environment. The PND was a weak challenge to the mainstream political forces, either conservative or liberal, failing in its bid to become Romania's third-strongest party. By 1916, it was effectively split between Iorga's moderates and Cuza's radicals, suspending its activity for the remainder of World War I.

The PND reemerged as a significant force in Greater Romania, after November 1918. It frequently changed names and refined its official stance, becoming closely aligned with Iorga's evolving ideas on society and politics. During the early 1920s, it trailed to the left of the political spectrum, caucusing with the Peasants' Party, and supporting a "Democratic Bloc" coalition against the National Liberals; its far-right faction seceded and became the National-Christian Defense League. Around 1925, the PND itself returned to national conservatism, briefly merging with the Romanian National Party, but resuming independence in 1926, when the latter merged into the National Peasants' Party. It reemerged with an agenda supporting technocracy and corporatism, and was brought to power in 1931, when King Carol II appointed Iorga as Prime Minister.

The PND and its allies attempted to tackle the Great Depression in Romania with controversial measures such as debt relief, and the government was voted out of office in the 1932 elections. Iorga's version of middle-class nationalism faded into political insignificance with the advent of fascist movements, in particular the Iron Guard; his own growing support for authoritarianism led him to dissolve the PND in 1938, when he and other cadres joined Carol's National Renaissance Front. He participated in the clampdown against the Iron Guard, which led to his killing in 1940.

The PND was revived clandestinely during World War II, with Petre Topa at its helm. In this final part of its existence, it joined up with liberal and socialist forces in opposing the Ion Antonescu dictatorship. It supported the coup of August 1944, and afterward enjoyed a brief existence as a legal party, before merging into the National Liberal Party–Tătărescu. From ca. 1950, Topa and various former PND affiliates were imprisoned by the Romanian communist regime, while others were recovered and enjoyed high favor.

History

Origins

Iorga and Cuza traced their collaboration to 1895, when they were among the founders of a short-lived Universal Antisemitic Alliance. The PND's existence was formalized on ( Saint George's Day) as a union of two groups respectively led by Iorga and Cuza. Iorga had previously entered and left the mainline Conservative Party (PC). Putting out the nationalist review '' Neamul Românesc'', he had also created a string of cultural-political societies, including the Brotherhood of Loyal Romanians, which had brought him into direct contact with Cuza; both men ran for Parliament seats as the "nationalist-democratic candidates" in 1907 (only Iorga was elected). By 1909, Cuza had also joined Iorga's lecturing team at Vălenii de Munte, where he outlined his producerist worldview: "Romania seems to have turned into a sewage canal ..for all sorts of ethnic filth, and the Romanian cannot sustain himself, by honest labor, in his own country—so he perishes."

In its original form, the PND was united around the ideals of economic antisemitism, postulating that Romanian Jews were a parasitical or exploitative stratum of society. Its earliest recorded symbol was the right-facing swastika (卐), or " Aryan cross", which Cuza used as a symbol of his antisemitic struggle. Beyond that, the party's roots were in the more radical forms of generically ethnic nationalism: four years before the PND's foundation, Iorga had sparked a riot against the National Theater, picked out for staging French plays, untranslated.

Structurally, the PND contested the third-party position, behind the PC and the dominant National Liberal Party (PNL). It was the first lower-middle-class organization in Romanian politics, its antisemitism and traditionalism being also manifestations of anti-capitalist anxieties. Its democratic demands included proposals to reform the 1866 Constitution by introducing "universal suffrage for the Romanians, with the representation of minorities".

Continuing Iorga's propaganda work, the party also endorsed the nationalism of Romanian communities in Bukovina and Transylvania (held by Austria-Hungary), and in Bessarabia (incorporated into the Russian Empire). Through PND and the Cultural League for the Unity of All Romanians, Iorga maintained alive the cause of irredentism and "Greater Romania". A final major rally point for the PND, was the agrarian platform, on which the PND clashed with the mainstream Conservatives. Explicitly set out against the "old parties", Iorga's group pushed for land reform through purchase, in effect "granting the peasants that large part of the land that is currently occupied by a fictitious great landed property". Iorga's stance on national and agrarian issue had made him a target for surveillance by the Siguranța secret police, which kept records of his movements. Radu Petrescu
"Enigma Ilie Cătărău (I)"
in ''Contrafort'', Nr. 5-6/2012

Early history

The party was nominally led by its two founders as co-presidents; in practice, Cuza had a supporting role, with Iorga supervising all aspects, including recruitment.Bozdoghină (2003), p. 69 Overall, however, Iorga was largely uninterested in creating himself a centralized and coherent party, preferring to focus on cultural politics. The PND was always strongest in Western Moldavia and Oltenia, with some additional fiefs in Brăila and Ploiești.Heinen, p. 86 In Bucharest, the cadres included aristocrat Vasile Kogălniceanu, actor Petre Liciu, and Orthodox chaplain Gheorghe Cotenescu. They were joined by Leon Cosmovici, the biologist and social worker. The Moldavian wing included veterans of far-right antisemitism such as Ion Zelea Codreanu and Corneliu Șumuleanu, alongside writer Ion Ciocârlan.Cor., "Scrisoare din București. Congresul partidului naționalist-democrat", in ''Românul (Arad)'', Nr. 93/1912, pp. 3–4 At a regional level, the party had in its ranks young radical-right militants such as Gheorghe Clime and Nichifor Robu. Also joining the PND were two Bessarabians: Dumitru C. Moruzi, the novelist, and Ilie Cătărău).

After inconclusive negotiations for an alliance with the PC,"Cronici bucureștene", in ''Unirea'', Nr. 6/1911, p. 70 the PND contested the elections of 1911 alone. Its main adversary was another candidate for the third-force role in politics, the Conservative-Democratic Party (PCD). The Bucharest list was headed by Iorga, while Kogălniceanu ran against them, as an independent; Liciu also ran, either as a PND affiliate or as an independent. In the wake of the elections, PND men complained that they had been harassed by the PCD, and that they could not hope to compete with it in the propaganda war. However, the PND itself also took up violence during the events, when Cătărău intervened to support Codreanu, who was running for a seat in Fălticeni."Atentatul dela Dobrițin. 4 Martie", in ''Românul (Arad)'', Nr. 41/1914, p. 4 The party took some 15% of the popular vote in those precincts where it put up candidates, but failed to win any seats. In the recall vote of 1912, Cuza and Iorga were elected together, although Cuza lost the fief of Iași; Iorga lost at Covurlui, but won in Prahova. They were to remain for long the party's only two parliamentarians, and represented the more marginal Second Colleges, comprising the urban underclass.

By then, the PND was holding annual congresses on Saint George's Day, with peasant participation. During the one of 1912, with Cuza absent due to illness, Iorga announced that he no longer pursued the Bucharest proletarian vote, and that the party would only focus on campaigning among the intellectuals, merchants, artisans and the peasantry. Its propaganda program, carried out in conjunction with the Cultural League, included setting up public libraries. The event also market the official launch of Cuza's newspaper, ''Unirea'', and included a memorial service for the recently deceased Liciu. The congress of 1913 showed the growing rift between Cuza and Iorga: the former supported quick intervention in what became the Second Balkan War, whereas Iorga opposed it (he was backed by various party activists, who found Cuza to be coarse and violent). The pro-war interventionist stance was also taken up by Kogălniceanu, who built on PND irredentism to propose Romania's expansion into "natural borders". Also around that time, at the University of Iași, Cuza's PND cell clashed with left-wing activists ( Social Democrats and Poporanists) over control of the "Student Center".

Ideological differences inside the PND were again on display during early 1914, when the PNL's Ion I. C. Brătianu made public his own project for land and electoral reform. While Iorga approved of their moderation, Cuza and Codreanu campaigned for more radical policies. Inner-party tensions flared up in the first two years of World War I, during which Romania, under a PNL government, was cautiously neutral. Following his irredentism, Iorga involved himself in the camp which supported the Entente Powers, but did so rather cautiously, placing his faith in the Brătianu administration. The party split over the issue: Cuza pushed for immediate intervention against the Central Powers, declaring that neutralism was "absurd". At a grassroots level, Cătărău, who was probably responding to Okhrana commands, involved himself in acts of terror in Bukovina and Transylvania, trying to push Austria-Hungary into declaring war. During the international scandal which followed, he fled Romania in mysterious circumstances.

1916 suspension and 1918 revival

In September 1915, Cuza stepped up his opposition to PND policies, joining Nicolae Filipescu's Unionist Federation. According to Iorga, the latter group perverted the nationalist cause, using its symbols in an attempt to topple and replace Brătianu.Bozdoghină (2003), pp. 71, 72 The highly inactive PND eventually suspended its activities in September 1916, some time after Brătianu had declared war on the Central Powers. The party was thus non-existent during the subsequent offensive and defeat, and its activists took flight during the evacuation of Bucharest. Taking refuge in Iași, where he continued to put out editions of ''Neamul Românesc'', Iorga resumed his seat in the Assembly as an independent, declaring Cuza to be "dead to me".

During the uncertain interval that followed Romania's peace with Germany, the former PND militants reactivated their party cells. Putting out ''Unirea'' newspaper, styled PND mouthpiece, Cuza and Codreanu announced that the party had merged into the anti-PNL coalition called People's League (later "People's Party", or PP), which was headed by General Alexandru Averescu. Their move was rejected by Iorga, who called it an "usurpation" by "ambitious and weary men." Both Iorga and Cuza participated in the June 1918 election, won by the Conservatives under Alexandru Marghiloman.

The armistice in the West overturned the country's fortunes, reopening the possibility of creating "Greater Romania", and thus raising Iorga's popularity. The ''Unirea'' group capitalized on this, leaving Averescu's party, and rejoining the PND, which had been formally reactivated on November 26, 1918.Bozdoghină (2003), p. 72 Before going back to its original name, it briefly existed as the "Union of National Democracy". It circulated a radical program, promising land reform through expropriation, but also attracted into its ranks defeated " Germanophiles" such as Costică Negruzzi. The reconciliation with ''Unirea'' was marred in ambiguity, as Cuza continued to support Averescu from inside the party; Iorga, meanwhile, regarded the PP as a congregation of "upstarts", and precluded any collaboration with Averescu. The reformed party also attracted into its ranks new cadres from other backgrounds, including Gheorghe Tașcă, the economist and former Conservative.

The PND remained divided on issues pertaining to antisemitism. In April 1919, the Assembly voted on Jewish emancipation: Iorga, taking a pragmatic approach, voted in favor, while Cuza and Codreanu were the only two parliamentarians to vote against.Heinen, p. 95 In parallel, both Cuza and Iorga drifted toward regionalism, joining the ranks of a pressure group called Brotherhood of Unified Moldavia, which reunited them with leftists such as Paul Bujor. The PND, however, was opposed to more radical decentralizing tendencies, and especially to corporate rights for the ethnic and religious minorities: in June, Iorga polemicized over the issue with Bukovina regionalists Iancu Flondor and Mayer Ebner. The restored PND contested the November elections, carried by universal male suffrage, and the first ones involving the whole of Greater Romania. Its logo showing two hands shaking,Radu (2002), p. 575 it had as its regional ally the Bessarabian Peasants' Party (PȚB), on whose lists Iorga ran and won an Assembly seat at Orhei. The PND emerged as the fifth largest in Parliament, winning 27 seats in the Assembly of Deputies and nine in Senate; the PȚB had an additional 72 deputies. The growth was marginal, as the PND only convinced 5.7% of the Greater Romanian electorate. Iorga became a staunch critic of the electoral mores cultivated by the PNL and the PP, alleging voter intimidation and supposed communist infiltration.

The PND and the PȚB became parliamentary supporters of the Romanian National Party (PNR) cabinet, presided upon by the Transylvanian conservative Alexandru Vaida-Voevod. This was a moment of triumph for the anti-system and anti-PNL parties. Their multicolored coalition, called Parliamentary Bloc, also included the Peasants' Party (PȚ), the Democratic Union Party, and remnants of the Labor Party. The PP was also co-opted until Iorga, designated Assembly President, issued a verbal attack against Averescu. The latter resigned from the Interior Ministry. The PND again split into two factions, Iorga having omitted to present Cuza as a PND candidate for Averescu's post. At that junction, Iorga and his supporters pushed for Kogălniceanu to take over as Prime Minister, though the latter was under investigation for embezzlement.

FDNS

Iorga witnessed the mounting tensions between King Ferdinand I and the Parliamentary Bloc, and, hoping to prevent Vaida's fall, presented Parliament with a land reform project. Gheorghe I. Florescu
"Corespondența personală a lui N. Iorga" (III)
in ''Convorbiri Literare'', July 2004 On March 13, 1920, Ferdinand ordered Vaida to step down, and installed Averescu as his Prime Minister. Years later, the monarchist Iorga saw this exercise of kingly power as abusive, and a "crime of state". The People's Party organized the elections in May, securing Cuza's support. On April 26, an emergency congress of the PND reconfirmed Iorga as the party president. Cuza denounced Iorga as a sellout to "foreigners and alienated Romanians"; Iorga in turn denounced the breakaway leader as an irrational xenophobe and a "man of the past". However, as historian Armin Heinen observes, Cuza was also toning down his antisemitic discourse, since, in 1920, the idea of Jewish emancipation was "all too enshrined". Instead, his faction took up "radical slogans against the left, including threats of violence".

The Iorga faction, allied with the PȚ into a Federation of National Social Democracy (FDNS), used as its symbol the sickle. Iorga's party won 10 seats in the Assembly and two in the Senate, whilst the Cuza group, or "Nationalist-Democratic Christian Party" (PNDC), won only two Assembly seats. Iorga took the deputy seat in Covurlui. He had also been proposed for an eligible position in Transylvania, but was quietly rejected by the PNR.

The FDNS supported the Democratic Bloc, an anti-PNL and anti-Averescu alliance formed around Vaida-Voevod. Like Vaida, Iorga supported reconciliation with the wartime enemies, as demanded by the Supreme War Council, and the integration of ethnic minorities into Greater Romania. He engaged in heated debates with Cuza over the matter. During the Democratic Bloc episode, Iorga displayed fondness toward left-wing politicians, and promoted to ministerial office the Laborite Nicolae L. Lupu. Viewing the Socialist deputies with amused sympathy, he later criticized the PNL's heavy-handed repression of the new Romanian Communist Party (''see Dealul Spirii Trial'').

As noted by historians, the PND was, from as early as November 1918, a " center-left enterprise" or a "bourgeois-radical left". Observing this transition, communist Petre Constantinescu-Iași theorized the PND was a conjectural ally of his party, since they both rejected "capitalist oligarchy"; he argued, however, that the PND "cannot understand revolutionism ndcommunist socialism", being largely made up of "naive" intellectuals "who fetishize motherland and tribe, which are in fact covers for capitalist exploitation."

LANC schism

In September 1921, the PND agreed to fuse into the PȚ. The pact eventually crumbled when Iorga fought against the arrival into the PȚ of Constantin Stere, whom he regarded as a wartime traitor.Drăghicescu, p. 67 In December, the PND took the name of "Nationalist Peasants' Party" (''Partidul Naționalist-Țărănesc''), which it used alternatively until 1923 or 1924. In addition to ''Neamul Românesc'', still its central organ, it published several regional newspapers. These include: ''Apărarea Națională'', ''Dacia'', ''Flamura'' and ''Vremea Nouă'' of Craiova; ''Biruința'' of Turnu Severin, ''Brazda Nouă'' of Bârlad; ''Crai Nou'' of Buzău and Focșani; ''Cuvântul Românesc'' of Râmnicu Vâlcea; ''Gazeta Satelor'' of Râmnicu Sărat; ''Poporul'' of Cernăuți; ''Răvașul Nostru'' of Fălticeni; ''Secera'' and ''Graiu Nou'' of Botoșani; ''Solia'' of Dorohoi.

The interim PCD government, led by Take Ionescu, was recalled in January 1922. Following Ionescu's sudden death later that year, Conservative-Democrat delegation, headed by Grigore Filipescu, approached Iorga for a fusion, but the latter insisted that they dissolve their party and enlist with the PND as simple members. The two PND factions reunited before the March 1922 elections, in which the PND used for its logo a black flag defaced with a white sickle. According to Iorga's notes, he and Codreanu toured Moldavia, where they were greeted by large crowds of peasants, but also heckled by the PNL's electoral agents; Iorga was proposed, by popular acclamation, for the Senate seat of Botoșani.

After some PND candidatures were ruled out by the electoral commission, Iorga declared the election fraudulent. The party only won only five seats in the Assembly and two in the Senate. In May 1922, at the height of renewed antisemitic incidents, Cuza, with Codreanu and Nicolae Paulescu, transformed the PNDC into a "National Christian Union". Dedicated to forcefully solving the "Jewish Question", and espousing religious antisemitism, it became the National-Christian Defense League (LANC) a year later, at a ceremony in which it flew Romanian flags defaced with swastikas. Assuming control of ''Apărarea Națională'' and ''Unirea'', it was soon joined by another PND defector, the sociologist Traian Brăileanu, who had helped organize the party's chapter in Bukovina.

The PND was continuing its transformation into a moderate party. Its leader firmly condemned the terrorist activities of LANC regional leaders, primarily Corneliu Zelea Codreanu (son of the former PND member). He also took a firm stand against the anti-Jewish riots encouraged by Cuza and the Codreanus in Iași, demanding strict legalism; he and other PND-ists were in turn denounced by the antisemites for their alleged leniency, and threatened by the National Romanian Fascio. During the following decade, Iorga's ''Neamul Românesc'' put out at most 15,000 copies per issue, a fourth of the LANC's '' Porunca Vremii''. In 1923, it was supplemented as a central organ by ''Răvașul Naționalist-Democrat'', put out in Bucharest by Tașcă. In addition to maintaining control over ''Brazda Nouă'', ''Crai Nou'', and other regional organs, the PND established other, often short-lived, newspapers and magazines. They include ''Bănățeanul'' of Timișoara, ''Credința Naționalistă'' of Târgu Jiu, ''Cuvântul Naționalist'' of Bacău, ''Dâmbovița Nouă'' of Târgoviște, ''Democratul'' of Tulcea, ''Îndemnul'' of Pitești, and several publications named ''Coasa''.

PNR absorption and PN revival

By 1924, Iorga had begun collaborating with Constantin Argetoianu, formerly an Averescu associate, changing the PND's name to "People's Nationalist Party" (''Partidul Naționalist al Poporului'', PNP). It organized itself in the Banat region, winning the adherence of Avram Imbroane and his ''Banatul Românesc'' weekly, and in Bessarabia, where it put out the monthly ''Brazda''. For a while, the PNP was seen as the potential conservative pole, which would attract into its ranks the former PCD militants. By 1925, it had absorbed one other faction of the latter group, under Iulian Vrăbiescu, and a PNR dissidence, under Mișu Economu. Working from within the PNP, they sought to prevent any union between the PNP and the PNR, proposed during the party congress in Craiova (March 1925). Ultimately, the schism between Iorga and Argetoianu also prevented the conservative consolidation from occurring.

Later in 1925, the PNP, alongside other conservative groups, merged into the PNR. Iorga protested against the PNL-backed electoral law of 1926, voted just weeks before new general election, which granted a "government dowry" (supplementary seats in Parliament) to the party that had a plurality of votes. He was a PNR representative at talks for a common strategy with the PP and PȚ, which ended with him rejecting Averescu's offer for a three-party merger; as a result, Averescu was called to power and presided over the electoral campaign and tally. When this tactical alliance between the king and the PP sparked consternation among the Nationals and the Peasantists, General Eracle Nicoleanu visited the opposition leaders in Iorga's home, warning them not to resort to violence. The election was carried by pro-government candidates, but, according to Iorga himself, voters were intimidated by omnipresent Gendarmes. It marked a peak of LANC electoral politics, winning them 120,000 votes and ten deputies, largely in counties previously loyal to the PND. Iorga managed to win the only seats taken by the opposition in Covurlui and Sibiu County.

The PNR and PȚ finally merged with each other, as the National Peasants' Party (PNȚ), on October 10, 1926. On October 11, Iorga reestablished the PND under the provisional name of National Party (''Partidul Național'', PN), regretting the dispersal of his "united legion for a national future" and the PNȚ's preference for "social parties". Thus renewed, it had a square-in-square logo (回), and its Vice President was the educationist Dumitru Munteanu-Râmnic, founder of the summer school in Vălenii. Its new affiliates included the left-leaning sociologist Gheorghe Vlădescu-Răcoasa, who helped put out ''Neamul Românesc'' and contributed reports on its congresses, and Iorga's own son, the engineer Mircea Iorga."Asistența", in Nicolae Iorga, ''Cuvântarea ținută la Întrunirea Comitetului executiv al Partidului Naționalist-Democrat de la 21 Ianuarie 1934'', pp. 26–28. Bucharest: Democratic Nationalist Party & Tipografia Ziarului ''Universul'', 1934 Traian D. Lazăr
"Poeții familiei Iorga"
in ''Apostrof'', Nr. 10/2011

The party and the newspaper were targeted by repressive policies under the new Averescu government, until the Prime Minister himself was compelled by Iorga to apologize and desist. The PN ran in the June 1927 election, but had just 24,600 votes (0.9%, behind the Peasant Workers' Bloc), and thus no seat in the resulting Assembly. Later that year, Romania's political system was reshuffled by the deaths of King Ferdinand and Brătianu. The PP and the PN found common ground in their shared resentment of the Romanian Regency regime, but also in their hostility toward the PNȚ; by June 1928, the PND also found common ground with the Ukrainian Social Democratic Party and other Bukovina regionalists, all of whom resented the PNL's centralizing policies. Iorga's party contested the elections of December 1928 as a People's Party ally, using the latter's six-pointed star as a logo. The elections were a major defeat for Averescu, whose alliance only won 2.5% of the vote and five seats in the Assembly. The PNȚ victory was seen by Iorga as proof of "demagogic debauchery".

In government

On June 6, 1930, with support from a pan-nationalist coalition that included Iorga, the deposed Prince Carol returned to Romania and deposed the Regency, enthroning himself as ''King Carol II''. In April 1931, having been dissatisfied with the PNȚ, he appointed Iorga Prime Minister of Romania, at the helm of a government that advertised itself as " technocratic" and anti-systemic. The PN contested the 1931 general election as founder of the National Union alliance, which also included Filipescu's Vlad Țepeș League (LVȚ) and Argetoianu's Agrarian Union Party (PUA). It was allied with the paramilitary Union of Volunteers in its Transylvanian constituencies, and also enjoyed nationwide support from various groups representing the ethnic minorities: the German Party, the Union of Romanian Jews, and the Ukrainian National Party.Florin-Răzvan Mihai, "Dinamica electorală a candidaților minoritari din Bucovina la alegerile generale din România interbelică", in Vasile Ciobanu, Sorin Radu (eds.), ''Partide politice și minorități naționale din România în secolul XX'', Vol. V, pp. 93, 94. Sibiu: TechnoMedia, 2010.

The National Union won 289 seats in the Assembly, including one for Mircea Iorga. A PN man, the mathematician Dimitrie Pompeiu, became Assembly President. His Vice President was another party official, the orthopedist Petre Topa. Mircea Beuran, Benone Duțescu
"Scurtă biografie a unui spital octogenar și a primului său director"
in '' Viața Medicală'', Nr. 39 (1339), October 2012 The latter was also leader of the PN's Caliacra chapter, while Mircea Iorga had a similar position in Turda County.

Although the arrival to power coincided with the worsening effects of the Great Depression in Romania, the cabinet was divisive on economic policy. Reportedly, Prime Minister Iorga took little interest in crisis management, leaving Argetoianu, the Minister of Finance, to be policy-maker; nevertheless, the two quarreled over details. Argetoianu and Gheorghe Ionescu-Sisești

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