National Agrarian Party Partidul Național-Agrar | |
|---|---|
.svg) | |
| Abbreviation | PNA |
| President | Octavian Goga |
| Founded | April 10, 1932 |
| Dissolved | July 14, 1935 |
| Split from | People's Party |
| Succeeded by | National Christian Party National Agrarian Party (Valjean faction) Union of National Awareness (from 1938) |
| Newspaper | Țara Noastră |
| Ideology | |
| Political position | Right-wing tofar-right |
| National affiliation | Antirevisionist League (1933) |
| Slogan | Dumnezeu, Patrie, Rege ("God, Fatherland, King") Rod mult, bun și cu preț ("More, better, valuable bearings") |
TheNational Agrarian Party (Romanian:Partidul Național-Agrar orPartidul Național-Agrarian, PNA) was a right-wingagrarian party active inRomania during the early 1930s. Established and led by poetOctavian Goga, it was originally a schism from the more moderatePeople's Party, espousing agrarianism in combination withnational conservatism,monarchism,antisemitism, andGermanophilia; Goga was also positively impressed byfascism, but there is disagreement in the scholarly community as to whether the PNA was itself fascist. Its antisemitic rhetoric was also contrasted by the PNA's acceptance of someJewish members, includingTudor Vianu andHenric Streitman. The group was generally suspicious of Romania's otherethnic minorities, but in practice accepted members and external collaborators of many ethnic backgrounds, such as theGagauzDumitru Topciu and theRomaniGheorghe A. Lăzăreanu-Lăzurică.
The PNA existed as a venue for supporting the authoritarianKing,Carol II, whose political program it partly enacted. The National Agrarianist economic and social proposals included the protection ofsmallholders, with echoes ofdirigisme and promises ofdebt relief. It was strongly opposed to the more left-wingNational Peasants' Party, describing it as corrupt and denouncing its autonomist-regionalist tendencies. InParliament, PNA representatives, largely inherited from the People's Party, collaborated mostly with two other anti-establishment groups: theGeorgist Liberals and theLupist Peasantists. The PNA was able to absorb some National Peasantist sections, primarily inBucharest andTransylvania.
The PNA registered its best result nationally in theDecember 1933 election, when it took 4.1% of the vote. Despite its relative insignificance, its leader Goga was often perceived as a likely contender for the office ofPrime Minister. The PNA had contacts inNazi Germany, who regarded it as a political ally. While cautious about the Nazis' take on international politics, Goga traveled toBerlin in late 1933, meetingAdolf Hitler and returning as an enthusiastic admirer. Moving closer to thefar-right and abandoning his own membership in theRomanian Freemasonry, Goga sought alliances with the more radical movements. The PNA tried but failed to unite with theIron Guard and theRomanian Front, finally merging with the slightly more powerfulNational-Christian Defense League in July 1935.
The resultingNational Christian Party (PNC) offered a venue for conservative antisemites with fascist sympathies, but was rejected by PNA moderates, as well as by some of the League's radicals. A splinter group, led byIon Al. Vasilescu-Valjean and centered onRomanați County, continued to call itself PNA, surviving to December 1937. Briefly serving as Prime Minister, Goga was asked to step down by Carol II, whose1938 Constitution introduced a royal dictatorship. Goga died soon after; although the PNC was not repressed under the new regime, it suffered an internal crisis, with PNA men establishing a Union of National Awareness. Both it and other PNC factions were then absorbed by Carol'sNational Renaissance Front.
The party emerged with a split in the more mainstream People's Party (PP), which was led by GeneralAlexandru Averescu. This followed a major dispute between Averescu and Goga, prompted by the latter's unconditional support for Carol II, who had taken the throne under disputed circumstances in 1930. Historian Adolf Minuț argues that Carol personally intervened to create a rift between the two men, this being one of a "web of Carlist machinations" to isolate his constitutionalist adversaries.[1] The same is noted by memoirist Vasile Netea, who describes Carol as performing "scissiparity" on the old parties.[2] In January 1932, Goga had vaguely announced his bid for the PP chairmanship, while also hinting that he was prepared to leave with his partisans if his candidacy were to be rejected.[3] On March 3, Averescu formally denounced Goga's maneuvers in a circular letter to regional affiliates, noting that a conspiracy was in place to break up the PP.[4]
In response, Goga accused Averescu of tarnishing the crown's prestige,[5] claiming that his own faction was now Romania's "one monarchist party"; according to Goga, a reigning king was to be held as an expression of the "Romanian soul".[6] Goga and his group were now situated on the extreme ofRomanian nationalism, with "some sympathies toward fascism".[7] However, their caucus was also able to absorb more moderate sections of the PP, leaving Averescu's group severely weakened.[8] Averescu and his colleague,Grigore Trancu-Iași, fought back by asking for all dissidents still holding seats in theAssembly of Deputies to be deposed. This proposal was eventually defeated by a vote, during which theNational Liberal Party voted in Goga's favor.[9]
Goga's party originated with a PP congress at Enescu restaurant on March 12, attended by 45 of 65 sections, which proclaimed Goga as People's Party chairman. By March 21, Averescu was able to regain control over most PP chapters, though he lost all presence in places such asArgeș,Cluj, andMehedinți.[4] Goga also enjoyed strong support in places such asCaraș County, where a local activist and landowner, Romulus Boldea, also embraced the schism.[10] Following this confrontation, Goga announced he would take on the "painful task" of leaving Averescu's group.[11] As noted by scholar Armin Heinen, the National Agrarians' genesis coincided with the parallel rise of theNazi Party inWeimar Germany: the PNA began organizing duringWeimar's presidential election, in whichAdolf Hitler came second.[12]
Goga's "general staff" included former ministerIon Petrovici, alongsideIon Al. Vasilescu-Valjean and C. Brăescu, who had been Vice Presidents of the Deputies' Assembly.[13] According to Valjean's own recollections, he was recruited by the PNA together with the "independent liberal group", which he had established as aparliamentary party.[14] Three other prominent Averescu supporters,Leon Scridon,[15]Silviu Dragomir andIoan Lupaș,[16] also joined Goga during his departure. Early defectors also included a large part of the PP eminences inTransylvania and theBanat:Sebastian Bornemisa, Eugen P. Barbul, Laurian Gabor, and Petru Nemoianu.[2] This remained "the most painful" of all schisms endured by the PP.[17] On April 10, 1932, this dissidence held its congress at Rio Cinema,Bucharest. Its first presidium included Lupaș, GeneralConstantin Iancovescu,Stan Ghițescu, Ilie Rădulescu, and Iancu Isvoranu; Goga was reconfirmed as People's Party chairman, before the party changed names.[18] The "PNA" name was adopted hours later, following a motion submitted by deputy D. D. Burileanu—having been first submitted for discussion a week earlier, during a more private meeting of party leaders.[19] The group registered as its electoral symbol "two dots within a circumference",[20] sometimes described as a circle with "two eyes".[21] Whether intentionally or not, this symbol closely resembled the circle used by a more democratic agrarian group, theNational Peasants' Party (PNȚ).[22] Transylvanian defectors from the PNȚ initially organized some of the PNA branches, but, in June 1932, returned to their old party.[23] More dedicated support came from the former PNȚ chapters inIlfov County and the "Black" (northeastern)sector of Bucharest, which were absorbed into Goga's new movement.[9]
Țara Noastră, put out from Transylvania byIon Gorun, endured as the central party organ, with another party newspaper of the same name appearing atBuzău.[24] While establishing itself regionally, Goga's party took over or established several regional newspapers:Cuvântul Poporului, put out by Elie Mărgeanu ofSibiu;Agrarul Vâlcei, published by Dumitru Zeana inRâmnicu Vâlcea;Cârma Vremii ofIași andChemarea ofVaslui; as well as two sheets inBrăila andConstanța, both namedBrazda Nouă.[25] PNA cadres included four important figures in Romania's commercial and industrial life, who, as Netea writes, were especially treasured by Goga. These were Ghițescu,Tilică Ioanid, I. D. Enescu, and Leon Gigurtu.[26] The group also reached out of its PP constituency, and had traction among people not previously involved in party politics, such asVirgil Molin, a journalist and president of theCraiova chamber of labor.[27] Also joining the PNA were the literary criticTudor Vianu[28] and his brother, the essayist Alexandru Vianu, alongside poetSandu Tudor and philosopherAlexandru Mironescu.[29] A small PNA chapter existed at Iași; it was very joined by another writer,Păstorel Teodoreanu, who had publicized disagreements with the local chairman, Florin Sion, and quit the party shortly after.[30] The party'sCâmpulung Moldovenesc branch was headed by lawyerTraian Popovici.[31]
As Heinen notes, the PNA was one of several groups channeling popular discontent following theGreat Depression; it was also the most authentic, and a "remarkable force."[7] HistorianStanley G. Payne describes the splinter group as authoritarian nationalist and "rightist", or "rather more overtly right radical" thanMihail Manoilescu's own dissident faction.[32] The issue of its labeling has caused some disputes in the community of experts.Nicholas Nagy-Talavera viewed Goga as a "bourgeois fascist", but his assessment was challenged by Heinen, according to whom the PNA's "radical nationalism" was "entirely devoid of that revolutionary pathos which set apart all the fascist parties."[33] Overall, "too many PNA members were still tied to the People's Party directives in both manners and ideas of political combat."[7] Researcher Ion Mezarescu likewise viewed the PNA ideology as "within the coordinates of interwar bourgeois democracy".[34] However, according to scholarIrina Livezeanu, Goga was in the process of migrating "across the conservative-radical divide".[35] National PeasantistNicolae Carandino, who was a political reporter in the 1930s, describes his disappointment with witnessing Goga's transition into a "politician and by no means a statesman". According to Carandino, the PNA leader had "no politically autonomous values", and was essentially a "high-end prostitute".[36]
While reaching out to the far-right, the PNA remained staunchly monarchist—according to Heinen, Goga was a "national conservative" among the "Carlists".[37] The National Agrarians adoptedDumnezeu, Patrie, Rege ("God, Fatherland, King") as their slogan, a rallying cry already associated with Goga before the party's formation.[38] The group's rejection of democracy had its roots in Goga's 1927 book,Mustul care fierbe ("The Frothing Must"), which argued that the masses needed a "moral eminence" to "inspire in them tranquility and safety."[39] The PNA suggested modifying Romania'sConstitution of 1923, reducingParliament to an "orderly and useful instrument", reformed around acorporative representation.[40] Simultaneously, the party campaigned for widening the suffrage, primarily byallowing women to vote; to this end, the wives of PNA eminences created their own "women circles", which also took up the task of promotingsocial hygiene in rural areas.[41]
In time, the PNA adopted another slogan:Rod mult, bun și cu preț ("More, better, valuable bearings"). This notion reflected its commitment to an agrarian economy, which Goga identified as the core of Romania's potential for export, in tandem with theRomanianization of labor and capital.[42][43] Its leadership promised to suspend payments on Romania'sexternal debt; in exchange, it promised a tax reform that would benefit both local and foreign investors.[44] Goga's agrarianism was identified as the main point of attraction by recruits such asDumitru Topciu;[45] it rested on the notion that peasants were a unifying factor, their shared culture transcending regional divisions.[46] In 1935, Valjean similarly proclaimed that all classes were "subordinate to the plowmen".[47] His PNA intended to make the smallholders key players in Romania's economy, encouragingcredit unions and land purchase, as well as describing a future in which labor and its product would be more expensive; it also promised to enact agriculturaldirigisme, with tools such as a state plan for developing agriculture,pomology,sericulture, and handicrafts.[48]
In parallel, Goga's intellectual debt to corporatism took form as promises to enactclass collaboration, or "harmonious solidarity between workers, peasants and all other productive forces".[49] Historian Oltea Rășcanu Gramaticu, who focused on the politics ofTutova County, noted that the PNA enjoyed "some popularity", due to its "radical solutions for revitalizing small plots owned by the peasants".[50] However, as argued by researchers Cornel Popescu and George Daniel Ungureanu, the PNA was agrarian "in name", and had a mostly right-wing program.[51] While seeking ways to improve the peasants' economic status, the party pledged itself to administrative reform and a full clampdown on corruption.[17][52] By October 1932, its deputies were engaged in a public confrontation with the PNȚ cabinet, headed byAlexandru Vaida-Voevod, over the issue ofdebt relief. Goga wanted most of the small- and mid-sized plots to be cleared of debt with state support, and wanted to extend that principle to public debt held by urban localities.[53] He also wantedcommunes to exercise more control over local tribunals.[54] Such proposals were balanced out by the PNA's adversity toward decentralizing projects, in which Goga saw evidence of pushes for Transylvanian autonomism, as endorsed by the PNȚ.[55] The PNA understood administrative reform to be necessary, but would only commit itself to projects which would befit "national unity as an instinct".[56]
The party's stances evidenced Goga's conversion to antisemitism, which he had not explicitly embraced before 1932; within that framework, Goga was arguing that Jews were endorsing "Magyarization" in Transylvania.[57] However, already in the 1910s Goga was modelling himself onKarl Lueger,Cisleithania's antisemitic doctrinaire;[58] Lueger's influence also reached directly to other PNA affiliates, including Boldea.[10] In the 1920s, Goga'sȚara Noastră had expressed sympathy with the growing antisemitic trend among students, and indirectly with theIron Guard.[59] InMustul care fierbe, Goga further hinted that Jews were to blame for the ills of modernity.[60] He voiced alarm aboutGreater Romania being invaded by "parasites" and "guess... who". However, he framed his support for the students in terms of social rejuvenation, and noted that violent antisemitism was perhaps an "incorrect slogan".[61] During theelections of 1926, Goga, asMinister of the Interior, had obtained favors forA. C. Cuza'sNational-Christian Defense League (LANC), which was virulently antisemitic. However, his assistance proved a moderating influence, obliging Cuza to purge the LANC of radicals such asIon Zelea Codreanu,Valer Pop, andTraian Brăileanu.[62]
While commenting on Goga's political duplicity, Carandino argued that he "was just as ready to serve the monarchy, the [National] Liberals, [the Jewish businessman]Aristide Blank, or anyone else who would have hired him."[63] In 1931, Goga was still reassuring his readers that he was not an antisemite.[64] According to Minuț, his subsequent drift was a consequence of his taking money from antisemitic industrialists, and in particular fromIon Gigurtu.[65] Xenophobic radicalization was additionally enhanced by the PNA–PNȚ conflict: Goga castigated his adversaries for their allegedgrafting during the "Škoda Affair", which had profited the Polish industrialistBruno Seletzky. However, Minuț notes, Goga was "contradictory" even at this late stage, sometimes stating his belief in the minorities' integration, but often decrying their participation in public life.[66]
The PNA nevertheless had various Jewish affiliates, including the Vianus, who probably believed that membership would complement theirassimilation,[28] and journalistHenric Streitman, who was primarily motivated by anticommunism.[67] While Tudor Vianu co-chaired the PNA Studies Circle, alongside Petrovici,[68] Streitman was appointed on the PNA's Executive Committee.[67] They were joined by Jewish philosopherIosif Brucăr, but only briefly. As Brucăr explained years later, he had resigned upon learning what the party actually stood for.[69] Another leading party figure was Jewish businessman Leon Preiss, who chaired the PNA section in Bucharest'sBlack Sector and, in 1932, still referred to Goga as a friend of the Jews.[70] Boldea, who now chaired the PNA section in Caraș, was married to aBosnian Catholic woman of German, Italian, and possibly Jewish ancestry.[71]
The party remained open to other ethnic minorities: its branch inDurostor County, organized by M. Magiari andPericle Papahagi, countedTurks,Bulgarians andAromanians among its members;[13] Topciu, an ethnicGagauz fromTomai in theBudjak, "managed to attract many of his brethren to the party."[72] PNA sections inBukovina were led by Petro Ivanciuc, Andriv Zemliuc and Necolai Palli, who were probablyUkrainian.[73] Goga also had contacts within theRomani community, including activistGheorghe A. Lăzăreanu-Lăzurică, who acted as an electoral agent for both the PNA and the Iron Guard.[74] PNA politico Rădulescu was allegedly of Romani origin, and was attending Romani congresses in a private capacity.[75] Such issues highlighted the schism between the two Romani organizations, respectively led by Lăzăreanu andCalinic Șerboianu. At the time, Șerboianu accused his rival of being Goga's puppet.[76]
According to Heinen, the PNA can be grouped into an "antisemitic [and] markedly right-wing" segment, alongside the LANC and theCitizen Bloc—but distinct from the more radical Iron Guard. The three parties had 9% of the vote in theJuly 1932 election, with the PNA itself at 3.64%[77] (or 4% and 108,857 ballots, in Minuț's count).[24] The leading candidates included Dragomir, Ghițescu, Gorun, Ioanid, Lupaș, Nemoianu, Scridon, Topciu, Valjean,Sergiu Niță, I. C. Atanasiu, as well as the party leader and his brotherEugen Goga. Eight were elected, including Octavian Goga forMureș, Ioanid for Mehedinți, Ghițescu forTeleorman,Pavel Guciujna forOrhei, and Valjean forRomanați;[78] Scridon also entered the Assembly by taking the second seat inNăsăud County, with 2,069 votes.[79] According to Netea's first-hand account, Goga's victory was hard-won: peasants rounded up to mock him during his campaign tour atDeda.[80]
Speaking for his party, Ghițescu accused Premier Vaida of having falsified the vote.[81] The PNA chose not to compete in the by-elections of September, announcing that it was too caught up organizing its base. Vaida's paper,Gazeta Transilvaniei, ridiculed this decision, noting that Goga had been "shamed" and was not risking further embarrassment.[82] The National Agrianists had by then cultivated a relationship with two other splinter groups of the classical parties: theGeorgist Liberal Party and theLupist Peasantists. It developed into a working alliance,[83] though Valjean went public with his criticism of the Georgists' republican tendencies.[14] Preparing for a foreseeable PNȚ downfall, the PNA held large-scale rallies announcing its preparedness for government. In April, atCaracal, Goga hinted that Carol was seriously considering forming a PNA cabinet.[84] On June 26, addressing a crowd gathered outsideTârgoviște, he announced his contempt for the PNȚ, describing its leader,Iuliu Maniu, as "responsible for all misfortunes that have fallen upon this country."[85] In December 1933, Carol asked Vaida to step down, and the National Liberals took over, withIon G. Duca at the helm. Duca then approached the PNA leadership to establish a coalition, conditioned on Goga toning down his nationalism; Goga refused.[86] The PNA leader was also dissatisfied with the details of the offer, and in particular with Duca's history as an anti-Carlist.[87] Discarding such mainstream arrangements, the PNA issued press releases referring to the Duca team as a clientele of the Jewry.[88]
Before theDecember 1933 election in Romania,Germany had come under Nazi control. The PNA found itself intensely courted by the new regime, which pursued Eastern European alliances. Goga was a regular guest at the German Legation, and accepted offers for collaboration; however, he also insisted thatNazi Germany vouch for Greater Romania's borders.[89] During those months, the PNA, represented by Valjean, joined the "Antirevisionist League", a civic movement for theLittle Entente and againstHungarian irredentism.[90] Formally supportive of theLeague of Nations and its system of peace treaties, the PNA made a slow move into Germany's orbit.[91] In its electoral program of 1933, the party removed all reference to the toleration of national minorities,[54] and proposed measures to supervise them, and in particular their "ideological imports".[92] Nonetheless, in March 1933, the Nazi agent of influence, Friedrich Weber, described Goga as a "man of the future", one who could bring Hitler's ideology to Romania.[93]
A far-right politico,Nae Ionescu, allegedly regarded Goga as a potentialPrime Minister of an Iron Guard cabinet. According to this version, Goga was tasked with enacting the "Hitlerian" program, including antisemitism andanti-Masonry.[94] This pronouncement anticipated Goga's own departure from theRomanian Freemasonry, of which he was still a member in summer 1933.[95] In September, Goga and ColonelȘtefan Tătărescu of theRomanian National Socialist Party (PNSR) were both received by Hitler inBerlin.[96] In November, while campaigning inBessarabia, the Colonel was seized by the local police.[97] Consequently, he and Cicerone Manole, who had led the Bukovina Nazi cell,[98] were put up as PNA candidates for the Assembly—Tătărescu headed the list forCahul, while Manole ran second to Teodor Tcaciuc inStorojineț.[99]
The 1932 performance was closely mirrored in this second national race, when the PNA managed 4.2%, with its family of parties again at 9%.[100] Such results proved well below Goga's expectations, and widely acknowledged as a sign that the Romanian electorate had not been persuaded by the tenets of radical nationalism—the party leader himself noted that propaganda had been "inefficient".[101] The PNA had nine mandates: Goga, Scridon, Ioanid and Ghițescu held on to their seats; Valjean was also elected, but for Caraș, with Petrovici taking his post in Romanați.[102] Topciu also won a seat, atTighina, while physicianGheorghe Banu was elected atIalomița. Another new recruit,Vasile Goldiș, failed to win the race forArad, as did Ion Demetrescu-Agraru inBaia, while Lupaș lost atSibiu and Nemoianu atSeverin.[102] Overall, the PNA had some 122,000 votes, which was enough to earn it an extra seat.[103]
As historian Francisco Veiga notes, visits to Germany and theKingdom of Italy made Goga "enthusiastic" and "completed [his] political evolution".[104] Goga himself claimed that he had madeBenito Mussolini be less supportive of Hungarian irredentism, by reminding him of the "blood kinship" between Romanians and Italians.[105] It was at this stage that Goga began openly praisingItalian fascism as the paragon of the "new psychology", while using its administrative laws as a template for reforms in Romania.[106] According to Mezarescu, this period also saw him taking a stand againstMarxism, which he opposed to "Romanianism". According to Mezarescu, this had "no logical justification", given that Goga addressed his critique to a "healthy [and] modern" capitalist society, in which Marxist postulates were "virtually unknown".[107]
The PNA and the LANC both repeatedly tried, but failed, to persuade the Iron Guard into a merger.[108] King Carol also proposed that the Guard be co-opted into a government coalition of "national forces", centered on the PP and the PNA.[109] This tendency was curbed by Premier Duca, who outlawed the Guard. Goga and the PNA reacted with public protests, viewing the measure as unwarranted.[110] In part, this was because the PNA leadership sensed that Duca would next target them.[111] Reportedly, after Duca's assassination by GuardistNicadori, Goga sent boots as gifts to all those convicted for the murder.[112] PNA deputies publicly called for an end to the anti-Guard wave of arrests, suggesting that it was unjustified.[55] By 1934, Goga was exchanging letters with the Guard's leader,Corneliu Zelea Codreanu, who promised him backing for a PNA government.[113]
Nevertheless, according to writerAl. Gherghel, in August 1933 the PNA still viewed itself as standing against "right- and left-wing extremes", its platform one of "moderate progress".[43] Over the following moths, Goga tried to fuse into his party the Lupists andRadical Peasantists, as well as theAgrarian League.[114] In mid 1935, Goga also approached Vaida's new far-right party, calledRomanian Front (FR), with offers of alliance or merger. Reportedly, Goga offered to fuse the PNA group into the FR, asking that he be assigned vice-chairmanship; Vaida refused, since he had promised that role to a long-time collaborator of his,Aurel Vlad.[115]
Goga's Nazi contacts also networked for the creation of a Romanian fascist party bringing together the PNA, the LANC, and the Georgists, but the project failed to materialize in this form.[116] It was then kept alive byAlfred Rosenberg, who believed in the necessity of consolidating Romania's antisemitic camp.[117] A LANC–PNA fusion was nonetheless also favored by Carol, who kept a close watch on Goga throughIon Sân-Giorgiu; both the king and his spy saw the resulting party as an instrument for the king's own executive powers.[118] Carol's agent atInternal Affairs,Victor Iamandi, distributed boons to the PNA and the LANC, helping their leaders to prefer Carol over Codreanu.[119]Nichifor Crainic, who oversaw the LANC's paramilitary youth (orLăncieri), also boasted an important role in negotiating the Goga–Cuza rapprochement.[120] The final merger was also partly motivated by Cuza's political calculations, since the LANC had only taken 4.5% of the vote in 1933.[57]
Claiming to represent "100,000 partisans" throughout Greater Romania,[14] the National Agrarianists held their second and final congress on April 7, 1935, again at Rio Cinema.[83] On July 14,[121] the PNA merged with the LANC to form theNational Christian Party, a hard-line antisemitic group. It used as its most popular symbol the LANC swastika, which Goga himself acknowledged as standing for the "Aryan race";[122] according to Mezarescu, its adoption showed a direct link with Nazism, despite claims that it had evolved from oldDacian symbolism.[123] The new party had a shared presidency, with Cuza and Goga as co-chairs. It sought to challenge the Iron Guard whilst remaining close to more mainstream conservative forces.[124]
As noted by historian Lucian T. Butaru, Goga proved a worthy replacement for Cuza's first associate,Nicolae Paulescu, who had died after disease in 1931.[125] Nevertheless, the new party faced immediate difficulties. A far-left antifascist,Scarlat Callimachi, noted in September 1935 that the PNC was made up from regional chapters that had no common ideological ground, the entire enterprise having been engineered by Hitler.[126] The fusion resulted in another split: after being sidelined in favor of a Goga favorite,I. V. Emilian quit the PNC and formed his own movement, called "Fire Swastika".[127] Valjean also opposed the merger, and made a point of not attending the PNC's constitutive congress.[128] In an interview withCurentul, he deplored the merger as a Cuzist takeover. As he noted there, his own agrarianism was a venue for "practical reforms"; he also challenged Goga's external policies, arguing that Romania's economic dependency on Germany could not dilute her commitments toFrance andBritain.[14] Such sentiments were also prevalent among other figures of the party elite. As noted by his philosopher grandson,Virgil Nemoianu, though Boldea agreed to join the PNC, his "inclination toward Germany clashed with his antipathy toward [Hitler's] vulgarity and cruelty."[129]
Valjean's own National Agrarian Party, centered on Romanați, counted among its members poetHoria Furtună, sculptorDumitru Pavelescu-Dimo, and businessman Sterie Ionescu (formerly of theLeague Against Usury).[47] It still existed ahead of ageneral election in December 1937, when it ran under a "T" logo, the old PNA symbol having been withdrawn and made unavailable for use.[130] On December 20, just ahead of the vote, it agreed to merge into the National Liberal Party, which Valjean had identified as a "guarantee for the country's future".[131] The Goga group continued to have autonomous existence within the PNC, notably by serving as the more Carlist branch, and therefore more directly supported by the king.[132] It was itself weakened by defections—described by Mezarescu as "the logical consequence" of Goga's antisemitic turn.[133] Of the PNA moderates, Lupaș no longer joined the PNC, whereas his colleague Dragomir did.[134] Tudor Vianu left before the unification and the adoption of full-on antisemitism,[28] with his brother resigning in 1935;[29] by contrast, Streitman remained an outside ally, serving as the PNC's electoral agent.[67] Goga himself became more explicitly antisemitic. Appointed Carol's Prime Minister after the 1937 election, he introduced aset of antisemitic laws. However, he continued to view himself as a moderate, censuring PNC radicals—includingGheorghe Cuza, who took pride in fomenting violence.[135] Virulent antisemitism was also embraced by the Romani caucus of Craiova, whose leader, Lăzăreanu-Lăzurică, finally joined the PNC in February 1938.[136]
Carol's eventual recall of the PNC cabinet that same month inaugurated a monarchist dictatorship: the1938 Constitution proclaimed a corporate state, and all political parties were dissolved. However, the PNC was allowed to function on Carol's orders, with the hope that it could emerge as the country's mass party.[137] The embittered Goga left the country and, having personally witnessedGermany's annexation of Austria, expressed support for a direct Nazi takeover in Romania.[138] He died suddenly in May 1938, leaving the PNC to separate into its pre-1935 formations: while Cuza opted to fully support the dictatorial project, former PNA activists grouped into a dissident, if politically insignificant, Union of National Awareness (Uniunea Conștiinței Naționale, UCN).[139] In December, theNational Renaissance Front (FRN) was introduced as a sole legal party. Organized byArmand Călinescu, formerly of the PNȚ, the FRN was implicitly hostile toward Cuza's ideology. As a preliminary step, it recruited heavily among UCN representatives.[140]
| Election | Votes | Percentage | Chamber | Senate | Position |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1932 | 108,857 | 3.8 | 8 / 387 | 0 / 113 | 7th |
| 1933 | 121,748 | 4.2 | 9 / 387 | 0 / 108 | 6th |
