National Christian Party

National Christian Party
Partidul Național Creștin
LeaderNichifor Crainic
Octavian Goga
A. C. Cuza
Founded16 July 1935 (1935-07-16)
Banned10 February 1938 (1938-02-10)
Merger ofNational Agrarian Party
National-Christian Defense League
HeadquartersBucharest
Paramilitary wingLăncieri
IdeologyNazism
Christian nationalism
Romanian nationalism
Fascist corporatism
Antisemitism
Political positionFar-right
ReligionRomanian Orthodoxy
Party flag
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The National Christian Party (Romanian: Partidul Național Creștin) was a far-right[1] authoritarian and strongly antisemitic[2] political party in Romania active between 1935 and 1938. It was formed by a merger of Octavian Goga's National Agrarian Party and A. C. Cuza's National-Christian Defense League (LANC); a prominent member of the party was the philosopher Nichifor Crainic. Goga was chosen in December 1937 by King Carol II to form a government which included Cuza. The government lasted for only 44 days and was followed by a royal dictatorship by Carol.

History

Origins

Antisemitic and anti-democratic imagery on a National Christian Party political poster

The origins of the National Christian Party trace back to A.C. Cuza's National-Christian Defense League (LANC) and Octavian Goga's National Agrarian Party (PNA), which had barely interacted during their existence before 1935 merger.

The National-Christian Defense League was one of the first large-scale fascistic and antisemitic movements in interwar Romania. Founded in 1923 by A.C. Cuza (considered to be the most important ideologue of antisemitism in Romania),[3] at the height of student violence in Romanian universities against Jews and various ethnic minorities, the League quickly gained support throughout the entire region of Moldova. LANC perpetuated and encouraged violent means of propaganda, ranging from street attacks and intimidation of political opponents to direct clashes and provocations against state authorities.[4]

Further information: National-Christian Defense League

The National Agrarian Party (PNA), however, had a completely different political background and evolution compared to LANC, which was essentially rooted in antisemitism. At its beginnings, the PNA manifested tolerance toward ethnic minorities and actively collaborated with them. Its statute even included provisions regarding the respect for ethnic minorities and their inherent characteristics. Octavian Goga, the founder of the PNA, was considered a friend and protector of the Jewish community in Romania by Leon Press, a Romanian Jewish industrialist and prominent member of the PNA.[5] Beginning in 1933, continuing in 1934 and 1935,[6] Octavian Goga began meeting regularly with Adolf Hitler and later with Benito Mussolini, the National Agrarian Party's ideology gradually started to reflect the influence of German National Socialism and Italian Fascist Corporatism, borrowing various doctrinal elements from both.[7]

The National Christian Party (PNC) inherited a wide range of doctrinal and organizational elements from the National-Christian Cuzist doctrine of the LANC, including blue-shirt uniforms, the Lăncieri paramilitary wing, flags (the Romanian tricolor bearing the swastika),[8] and similar means of action — such as violently repressing the Legionary Movement[9] and carrying out systematic genocides against Jews[10] with its assault battalions.

Further information: History of the Jews in Romania

Founding

By 1935, the political climate in Romania was turbulent, with traditional parties criticizing King Carol II's political stance and his royal camarilla. Parties such as the National Liberal Party-Brătianu wing (PNL-B) and the National Peasants' Party (PNȚ), led by Iuliu Maniu, displayed anti-carlist attitudes and, in early 1935, according to a Siguranța report, planned a collective action against Carol's camarilla.[6]

King Carol II was aware of the threat the anti-carlist opposition posed to his plans for uncontested authoritarian rule. He undertook various actions to weaken the traditional political parties, fostering division within the National Liberal Party by supporting the PNL-Tătărescu wing (PNL-T) and its government in 1934. Additionally, he sought to undermine the popularity and cohesion of the National Peasants' Party in the Transylvania region by using Ion Mihalache, the PNȚ vice president, against party leader Iuliu Maniu.[11] In order to further weaken the traditional political parties and the strongly anti-carlist Legionary Movement, King Carol II supported the creation of a carlist, pro-monarchist party, which would allow him to strengthen his authoritarian grip on power.[12] A.L. Easterman hypothesizes that Carol had placed this party in power (in 1938) "to give his people a taste of Fascism", hoping vainly that an ensuing reaction against such policies would sweep away not only the relatively weak National Christians but also the far stronger Legionary Movement.[13]

The National-Christian Defense League was the main rival of the Legionary Movement, with which it frequently clashed, while Goga's National Agrarian Party exhibited a strongly pro-carlist and pro-monarchist stance, which was seen as a safeguard and moderating force against the cuzist wing within the merged party. The two parties were ideal candidates for a merged puppet carlist party; as a result, King Carol II, through the Siguranță, monitored both for a period before attempting to bring them closer together for a potential merger. [12] Carol also took into consideration the appeasement of Nazi Germany, which aimed to establish a pro-German regime and actively intervened in the Romanian political scene to support sympathetic or satellite parties — among them the PNC, once it was founded.[14][15]

Nichifor Crainic, a prominent antisemitic ultranationalist ideologue and future vice president of the PNC, was reportedly involved in a secret agreement with Octavian Goga to facilitate a merger with LANC, which was the reason he left the Legionary Movement to join LANC in the first place. However, German documents indicate that personnel of the Amt Rosenberg also played a role in arranging the merger.[16] For his involvement in the merger, some political scientists consider Crainic a "royal executor," given King Carol II's ambition to create a party that would serve his interests.[17]

The merger took place in Iași on July 14, 1935. Delegates of the National Agrarian Party and the National-Christian Defense League from across the country gathered in the presence of the two presidents of the newly founded party — A. C. Cuza as Supreme President and Octavian Goga as Active President — for celebrations and the signing of the constitutive act of the National Christian Party, in the presence of parliamentarians from Iași County.[17]

Activity

The Goga-Cuzists (sometimes generally referred to as the cuzists by the press at the time or by historical sources, there is, however, a distinction between the cuzists — i.e. A.C. Cuza’s supporters within the PNC — and Goga’s supporters), as they were called, were the main rivals of the legionnaires, and violent disputes between the two parties were particularly intense in the eastern regions of the country. In Bessarabia, for example, the Legionary Movement remained weak, while in Bukovina and parts of Moldova, the strength of the PNC prevented it from securing the entire nationalist-antisemitic electorate. The king’s strategy of weakening both the traditional parties and the Legionary Movement proved effective in this regard.[18] The electoral influence in the eastern regions of Romania was inherited from LANC, which was very active in Moldova, whereas the electoral influence of the PNA was based in Transylvania.

Vaida-Voevod’s Romanian Front, founded in 1935, promoted Numerus Valachicus — a policy that prioritized ethnic Romanians over minorities. The party also organized paramilitary assault battalions, akin to the blue-shirts of the cuzists and the green-shirts of the Legionary Movement. This development further splintered Romania’s already fragmented far-right faction, characterized by warlordism, rivalries, and lack of unity in action.

In April 1937, Octavian Goga attempted once again to form a Cuza–Goga–Vaida coalition and to repair relations with C.Z. Codreanu's Legionary Movement — although the appeasement of the Legionary Movement proved to be in vain. In February 1937, when two cuzists approached Codreanu with the suggestion of forming a united "nationalist front," Codreanu reportedly responded: "Comrades, beware of dogs, whores, and cuzists."[19] Prior to that, during 1935 and 1936, Goga had pursued similar efforts, either through coalition talks with Vaida-Voevod or by seeking the merger of the Romanian Front into the PNC. Vaida-Voevod was interested in a merger but hesitated, as he feared he would play a minor role in the leadership, since a third president role could not be introduced. Goga pursued a coalition or merger because he trusted the Transylvanian nationalists significantly more than the Cuzist wing of the PNC, which was also distrusted and opposed by Goga’s old followers from the now-merged National Agrarian Party, due to A.C. Cuza’s radical antisemitism.[20]

The NSDAP placed its support behind Octavian Goga and A.C. Cuza — who was referred to as the "mentor of European antisemitism" by Julius Streicher and Alfred Rosenberg — and their party, rather than behind C.Z. Codreanu and his legionnaires, although the legionnaires also received support from the NSDAP and King Carol II himself at certain points.[21] The leading figures of the NSDAP, among them Alfred Rosenberg — who took a particular interest in the issue of Nazi and fascist-oriented parties in Romania — claimed that the issue had to be resolved in Germany's favor: "The issue of the organizations in Romania harms the Reich’s foreign policy, which must absolutely be taken into account in these times."[22] The support of the NSDAP's Amt Rosenberg facilitated the creation of the party and continued to heavily support it in the period that followed.[23]

On November 8, 1936, 100,000 National Christians marched through Bucharest, imitating the Nazi salute and carrying Romanian tricolor flags bearing the swastika. The march was authorized by the Tătărescu government through Octavian Goga, who maintained contacts with high-ranking Nazi officials. Such demonstrations were never permitted for the Legionary Movement.[18] For the 1937 electoral campaign alone, the NSDAP, through the German Embassy, sent 17,000 kilograms of printed propaganda materials to the German school in Bucharest, along with didactic materials and 40,000,000 Romanian Lei for the Romanian parties it supported, among them the PNC.[24]

The National Christian Party actively opposed the Legionary Movement during the 1937 Romanian general elections. Although the Legionary Movement formed an electoral pact on 26 November with the National Peasants' Party (PNȚ) and the dissident Brătianu wing of the National Liberal Party (PNL-B) to minimize violence and coordinate opposition to King Carol II, the PNC remained outside this agreement. Clashes between legionnaires and the PNC-affiliated cuzists continued throughout the campaign. On 11 December, the PNC, in cooperation with the PNL-T (which was in office at the time), successfully challenged the legal eligibility of several legionary candidates who had participated in the Spanish Civil War. The challenge argued that these individuals had forfeited their Romanian citizenship by serving under a foreign flag. As a result, legionary candidate lists were disqualified in 18 counties.[25]

The 1937 Romanian general elections did not produce a clear parliamentary majority. For the first time in the country’s history, the ruling party failed to win the elections. The governing coalition led by Gheorghe Tătărescu secured only 35.92% of the vote. Iuliu Maniu’s National Peasant Party received 20.40%, while Corneliu Zelea Codreanu’s Totul pentru Țară (the political arm of the Legionary Movement) obtained 15.58%. Faced with a weakened National Liberal Party, unwilling to transfer power to either Maniu or Codreanu, King Carol II turned to the fourth-largest party, the National Christian Party, which had received 9.15% of the vote. Goga was invited to form a government. The resulting cabinet included five PNC deputies, three PNȚ members, and two independents — notably Istrate Micescu as Minister of Foreign Affairs and Armand Călinescu, a known opponent of the Legion, as Minister of the Interior.[26] In his journal, King Carol II reflected on the formation of the new cabinet following the 1937 elections. He wrote:

"Normally, based on the electoral results, I should have invited Codreanu. However, no one outside the legionnaires would have approved such a move. For me, it was a total and absolute impossibility. Their use of terrorist methods, their violent antisemitism, their overtly radical foreign policy — especially their desire to overturn existing alliances and their unnatural closeness to Germany — as well as their overall extremist and antisocial approach, made this option unacceptable. Thus, the only remaining constitutional solution was to call upon the National Christian Party of Goga and Cuza." [9]

Under the pretext of opposing the Axis and antisemitism, Carol paradoxically appointed to the government individuals who openly admired Hitler’s radical antisemitism — people whose visits to Nazi Germany[27] were well known and were strongly criticized by the National Peasant Party during the election campaign.[9]

"GOGA, RUMANIAN NAZI CHIEF, RETURNS FROM BERLIN TRIP

BUCHAREST, Aug. 30. (JTA) – Returning from Berlin, Prof. Octavius Goga, notorious Rumanian anti-Semitic leader, today told newspaper men that the task of his Rumanian National Christian Party was to fight bolshevism and Jewry.

Prof. Goga reported he had received the most favorable impression of the Third Reich."[28]

- Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Vol. II. No. 26 from August 31, 1936.

Governance

Goga's government was formed on 29 December 1937, and began its term by repudiating Romania's obligations under the 1919 Treaty of Paris, also known as the Minorities Treaty, imposed upon it at the 1919 Paris Peace Conference. The government then introduced a series of anti-semitic laws.[29] On 21 January 1938, it promulgated a decree aimed at reviewing criteria for citizenship (after it cast allegations that previous cabinets had allowed Ukrainian Jews to obtain it illegally).[30] It required all Jews who had received citizenship in 1918-1919 to reapply for it, and set an impossibly high bar for documentary proof of such citizenship, while providing only 20 days in which this could be achieved.[31] It effectively stripped 250,000 Romanian Jews of Romanian citizenship, one third of the Romanian Jewish population.[32] Jewish businesses were closed down; and the resulting disruption took down many non-Jewish businesses and caused massive capital flight.[33]

Besides being an anti-Semite himself, Goga attempted to outflank the Legionary Movement's popular support. In press interviews at the time he said:

The Jewish problem is an old one here, and it is a Romanian tragedy. Briefly, we have far too many Jews. ,

— TIME interview, 1938[34]

For us there is only one final solution of the Jewish problem—the collection of all Jews into a region that is still uninhabited, and the foundation there of a Jewish nation. And the further away the better.

— 1938 interview[35]

The regime instituted by Goga and Cuza gave itself a paramilitary wing of Fascist character, the Lăncieri ("Lance-bearers"). They borrowed heavily from the Legionary Movement, and started competing with it for public attention. Between 1935 and 1937, the Lăncieri carried out more terrorist actions and pogroms throughout Romania than the Legionary Movement.[36] Because of its anti-semitic measures, the Goga-Cuza government has been referred to as "more Nazi than the Germans".[37]

At Goga's request, Carol dissolved parliament on 18 January 1938 with a view toward holding a new election that winter. However, Carol became alarmed with overtures being made by the National Christian Party towards the Legionary Movement,[38] and on 10 February 1938, he ended Goga's government after only 45 days, suspended the Constitution, canceled the planned election, and instituted a royal dictatorship. He formed the National Renaissance Front as the single monopoly party and banned all other political parties. He suspended the 1923 Constitution, and created the 1938 Constitution of Romania.

The founder of the Cernăuți branch of the National Christian Party, Traian Popovici, served in World War II as the mayor of Cernăuți, saving around 20.000 Jews from deportation to the Transnistria Governorate.[39] He had been declared as a Righteous Among the Nations by Israel's Yad Vashem.[40]

Electoral history

Legislative elections

Election Votes Percentage Assembly Senate Position Aftermath
1937 281,167 9.3%
39 / 387
0 / 113
 4th PNC minority government (1937–1938)

References

  1. ^ Payne, Stanley G. (1996). A History of Fascism, 1914–1945. University of Wisconsin Press. p. 15.
  2. ^ Payne, Stanley G. (1995). A History of Fascism, 1914–1945. University of Wisconsin Press. p. 284.
  3. ^ Schmitt, Oliver Jens (2017). Corneliu Zelea Codreanu. Ascensiunea și căderea „Căpitanului“ [Corneliu Zelea Codreanu: The Rise and Fall of the “Captain”] (in Romanian) (2nd ed.). București: Humanitas (published 2022). p. 445. ISBN 978-973-50-7541-5.
  4. ^ Clark, Roland (2015). Sfântă tinereţe legionară. Activismul fascist în România interbelică (ediţia a II-a revăzută şi adăugită) [Holy Legionary Youth. Fascist Activism in Interwar Romania] (in Romanian) (2nd, Revised, Expanded ed.). Iași: POLIROM (published 2024). pp. 60–76. ISBN 978-973-46-9830-1.
  5. ^ Mezarescu, Ion (2018). Partidul Național Creștin 1935-1938 [The National Christian Party 1935-1938] (in Romanian). București: Paideia. p. 62. ISBN 978-606-748-256-0.
  6. ^ a b Mezarescu, Ion (2018). Partidul Național Creștin 1935-1938 [The National Christian Party 1935-1938] (in Romanian). București: Paideia. p. 70. ISBN 978-606-748-256-0.
  7. ^ Mezarescu, Ion (2018). Partidul Național Creștin 1935-1938 [The National Christian Party 1935-1938] (in Romanian). București: Paideia. p. 64. ISBN 978-606-748-256-0.
  8. ^ Mezarescu, Ion (2018). Partidul Național Creștin 1935-1938 [The National Christian Party 1935-1938] (in Romanian). București: Paideia. p. 102. ISBN 978-606-748-256-0.
  9. ^ a b c Schmitt, Oliver Jens (2017). Corneliu Zelea Codreanu. Ascensiunea și căderea „Căpitanului“ [Corneliu Zelea Codreanu: The Rise and Fall of the “Captain”] (in Romanian) (2nd ed.). București: Humanitas (published 2022). p. 281. ISBN 978-973-50-7541-5.
  10. ^ Radu, Sorin; Schmitt, Oliver Jens (2023). România interbelică. Modernizare politico-instituțională și discrus național [Interwar Romania. Political-Institutional Modernization and National Discourse] (in Romanian). Iași: POLIROM. pp. 500–506. ISBN 978-973-46-9741-0.
  11. ^ Schmitt, Oliver Jens (2017). Corneliu Zelea Codreanu. Ascensiunea și căderea „Căpitanului“ [Corneliu Zelea Codreanu: The Rise and Fall of the “Captain”] (in Romanian) (2nd ed.). București: Humanitas (published 2022). pp. 193–194. ISBN 978-973-50-7541-5.
  12. ^ a b Mezarescu, Ion (2018). Partidul Național Creștin 1935-1938 [The National Christian Party 1935-1938] (in Romanian). București: Paideia. p. 75. ISBN 978-606-748-256-0.
  13. ^ Easterman, A. L. (1942). King Carol, Hitler and Lupescu. London: Victor Gollancz LTD. pp. 258–259.
  14. ^ Schmitt, Oliver Jens (2017). Corneliu Zelea Codreanu. Ascensiunea și căderea „Căpitanului“ [Corneliu Zelea Codreanu: The Rise and Fall of the “Captain”] (in Romanian) (2nd ed.). București: Humanitas (published 2022). pp. 193–195. ISBN 978-973-50-7541-5.
  15. ^ Mezarescu, Ion (2018). Partidul Național Creștin 1935-1938 [The National Christian Party 1935-1938] (in Romanian). București: Paideia. pp. 73, 75, 113. ISBN 978-606-748-256-0.
  16. ^ Clark, Roland (2 February 2012). "Nationalism and orthodoxy: Nichifor Crainic and the political culture of the extreme right in 1930s Romania". Nationalities Papers: The Journal of Nationalism and Ethnicity. 40 (1): 107–126 – via Cambridge University Press.
  17. ^ a b Mezarescu, Ion (2018). Partidul Național Creștin 1935-1938 [The National Christian Party 1935-1938] (in Romanian). București: Paideia. pp. 78–79. ISBN 978-606-748-256-0.
  18. ^ a b Schmitt, Oliver Jens (2017). Corneliu Zelea Codreanu. Ascensiunea și căderea „Căpitanului“ [Corneliu Zelea Codreanu: The Rise and Fall of the “Captain”] (in Romanian) (2nd ed.). București: Humanitas (published 2022). p. 195. ISBN 978-973-50-7541-5.
  19. ^ Schmitt, Oliver Jens (2017). Corneliu Zelea Codreanu. Ascensiunea și căderea „Căpitanului“ [Corneliu Zelea Codreanu: The Rise and Fall of the “Captain”] (in Romanian) (2nd ed.). București: Humanitas (published 2022). p. 261. ISBN 978-973-50-7541-5.
  20. ^ Mezarescu, Ion (2018). Partidul Național Creștin 1935-1938 [The National Christian Party 1935-1938] (in Romanian). București: Paideia. pp. 152–153. ISBN 978-606-748-256-0.
  21. ^ Schmitt, Oliver Jens (2017). Corneliu Zelea Codreanu. Ascensiunea și căderea „Căpitanului“ [Corneliu Zelea Codreanu: The Rise and Fall of the “Captain”] (in Romanian) (2nd ed.). București: Humanitas (published 2022). pp. 194, 261, 281. ISBN 978-973-50-7541-5.
  22. ^ Mezarescu, Ion (2018). Partidul Național Creștin 1935-1938 [The National Christian Party 1935-1938] (in Romanian). București: Paideia. pp. 113, 153. ISBN 978-606-748-256-0.
  23. ^ Schmitt, Oliver Jens (2017). Corneliu Zelea Codreanu. Ascensiunea și căderea „Căpitanului“ [Corneliu Zelea Codreanu: The Rise and Fall of the “Captain”] (in Romanian) (2nd ed.). București: Humanitas (published 2022). pp. 194–195, 197. ISBN 978-973-50-7541-5.
  24. ^ Mezarescu, Ion (2018). Partidul Național Creștin 1935-1938 [The National Christian Party 1935-1938] (in Romanian). București: Paideia. p. 113. ISBN 978-606-748-256-0.
  25. ^ Clark, Roland (2015). Sfântă tinereţe legionară. Activismul fascist în România interbelică (ediţia a II-a revăzută şi adăugită) [Holy Legionary Youth. Fascist Activism in Interwar Romania] (in Romanian) (2nd, Revised, Expanded ed.). Iași: POLIROM (published 2024). p. 236. ISBN 978-973-46-9830-1.
  26. ^ Clark, Roland (2015). Sfântă tinereţe legionară. Activismul fascist în România interbelică (ediţia a II-a revăzută şi adăugită) [Holy Legionary Youth. Fascist Activism in Interwar Romania] (in Romanian) (2nd, Revised, Expanded ed.). Iași: POLIROM (published 2024). p. 239. ISBN 978-973-46-9830-1.
  27. ^ Mezarescu, Ion (2018). Partidul Național Creștin 1935-1938 [The National Christian Party 1935-1938] (in Romanian). București: Paideia. pp. 54, 64, 73. ISBN 978-606-748-256-0.
  28. ^ "Goga, Rumanian Nazi Chief, Returns from Berlin Trip". Jewish Telegraphic Agency. 1936. p. 6. Archived from the original on 7 August 2024. Retrieved 23 July 2025.
  29. ^ Quinlan, Paul D. (1977). Clash over Romania: British and American policies toward Romania, 1938-1947. American Romanian Academy of Arts and Sciences. p. 29. ISBN 9780686232636.
  30. ^ Ornea, p.391
  31. ^ Royal Decree, 1938, art.6
  32. ^ Itamar Levin, Greenwood Publishing Group, 2001, His Majesty's Enemies: Great Britain's War Against Holocaust Victims and Survivors, p. 46
  33. ^ Easterman, 1942, p. 259
  34. ^ "Bloodsucker of the Villages". TIME Magazine. 31 January 1938. Archived from the original on October 18, 2009.
  35. ^ "Jews Spurned in Rumania". The Argus. Independent Cable Service. 24 January 1938. p. 9.
  36. ^ Ivan T. Berend, University of California Press, 2001, Decades of Crisis: Central and Eastern Europe Before World War II, p. 337
  37. ^ Rudolph Tessler, University of Missouri Press, 1999, Letter to My Children: From Romania to America Via Auschwitz, p. 31
  38. ^ Michael Mann, Fascists, Cambridge University Press, 2004, pp. 288-289
  39. ^ https://ro.scribd.com/document/403421742/Traian-Popovici-docx
  40. ^ http://db.yadvashem.org/righteous/family.html?language=en&itemId=4016999
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