Origins Averscan populism had its roots firmly planted in the troubled years of World War I, and was a direct answer to the
military disaster of 1917. In summer 1916, keeping up with the orthodox
irredentist ("Greater Romanian") agenda, a PNL-governed Romania had joined the
Entente Powers. The general mood was one of romantic optimism, which cast away Romania's endemic social problems, including the stringent issues of
electoral and
land reform: the majority of Romanian conscripts were landless peasants, rendered politically marginal by the
census suffrage. Although "Greater Romanian" plans were already in circulation, the "
Old Kingdom" found itself tackled by social conflicts. Tensions exploded with the
1907 Peasants' Revolt, when General Averescu was called on by the PNL to organize the violent repression. This incident was later invoked against his claim to represent the interests of Romanian peasants. It was also the start of a bitter rivalry between Averescu and the PNL
Prime Minister,
Ion I. C. Brătianu. From 1918 to 1927, their problematic relationship was to be a national affair, affecting the course of Romanian politics. As historian Gheorghe I. Florescu writes, in the course of it Brătianu went from a "manic" mistrust of Averescu to a more benevolent arrogance. Even more reluctant, the opposition Conservatives became split into factions: the traditional wing, led by
Alexandru Marghiloman, was "
Germanophile", and reserved about the "Greater Romania" project; the
Conservative-Democratic Party, under
Take Ionescu, had a history of cooperation with the PNL, and gave full endorsement to the Entente. Before the war, Averescu tended to support the Conservative side, gravitating between Marghiloman and Ionescu.
King Ferdinand I, the PNL government, and some of the opposition were in consensus about keeping up resistance. Visiting his peasant troops in April 1917, Ferdinand issued a formal promise of land reform, and hinted that some political reform was also being considered. However, the
February Revolution in Russia dealt a serious blow to military cooperation in Moldavia—
Russia's Provisional Government was largely unable to control its military. The
October Revolution, and then the
Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, left Romania without allied support, a passive witness to the
Russian Civil War. Faced with the prospect of an all-out Central Powers' offensive in Moldavia, Ferdinand made Averescu his prime minister. To the PNL, he was an enigma: some perceived him as a dangerous
pacifist, a Conservative, or an "undertaker" of the historic parties; others believed him a convenient figurehead, who diverted attention from Brătianu's maneuvering.
Creating the League cartel". A hostile portrayal (with an
antisemitic tinge) by
Nicolae Petrescu-Găină. Indicative of the mix of feelings that went into creating anti-establishment parties such as the League Ruling over a vaguely defined Romanian territory, the Marghiloman cabinet took it upon itself to carry out the reforms. In a mood of general hostility toward the PNL, it focused on dismantling the National Liberal institutions, promising to build the country on new foundations. It was in this climate that Averescu created his People's League, on April 3, 1918. Its nucleus was a personal association between Averescu and the Conservative dissenters
Constantin Argetoianu and
Matei Cantacuzino. Through the affiliations of Negulescu and
Ion Petrovici, the League established a connection with the doctrines of Old Kingdom
liberal conservatism, as codified in the 19th century by philosopher
Titu Maiorescu. In occupied Bucharest, the People's League was supported by a parallel "League of Common Good", founded by physicist
Enric Otetelișanu. He later helped set up Averescan clubs in northern
Muntenia. On the left side, the early League incorporated a Moldavian radical-left wing, or "
Labor Party", represented by
Grigore Trancu-Iași and other activists. From the very first moment, the Averescans were joined by a splinter group of the
Democratic Nationalist Party (PND), whose leader was a Moldavian academic,
A. C. Cuza. The PND was a nationwide
antisemitic movement founded by historian
Nicolae Iorga, and Cuza's men had always been its
racist wing, called "grotesque" and "obsessive" by Veiga. Divided over this issue, but also over war-era policies, the two PND leaders were avoiding each other in 1918; Cuza,
Ion Zelea Codreanu and
Corneliu Șumuleanu effectively organized a PND schism by signing their adhesion to the League. The PNL's ruin offered a chance to other anti-systemic, radically reformist, political forces. One of them was the
Peasants' Party (PȚ), led by schoolteacher
Ion Mihalache. Although the League and PȚ would eventually compete with one another, and divide between them the "Labor Party", they were, according to political scientist Ionuț Ciobanu, created in the same mold. Eventually, the League adopted an anti-PNL platform promising full reforms, including
universal male suffrage. The more innovative point among these was a commitment to punishing those guilty of "abuse and mistakes", a barely disguised reference to Brătianu's policies. It ran under this platform in the
1918 election, without impressing the voters. The suffrage was more of a personal triumph for Averescu, who joined the
Assembly of Deputies as a progressive, watching over the government's fulfillment of reforms, and denouncing the peace agreements; he envisioned an alliance with the PNL, but asked for Brătianu to renounce the party presidency. The Marghiloman project came to an abrupt halt in November 1918, when the
Armistice with Germany spelled out a world victory for the Entente forces, and opened new prospects for the
union with Transylvania. The PNL was swiftly returned to power by King Ferdinand, but the political turmoil required emergency apolitical rule, and General
Artur Văitoianu took over as prime minister.
1919 elections '', the League's main newspaper, after the
election of 1919. It reads: "Elections under the Military Dictatorship. Defeat for the Brătianu Dynasty" Văitoianu's favoritism of the PNL, and his fear of left-wing rebellion, sparked a conflict between government and the recently founded
Socialist Party of Romania (PS). For a while, the anti-PNL Averescans and Conservative-Democrats (the "United Opposition") even negotiated with the PS leaders for a common boycott of the
coming election. These negotiations opened the door to other common projects: Argetoianu and Văleanu were especially close to the PS' republican platform, while the general favored a
crowned republic. Snubbed by the returning king and by Brătianu (though received with sympathy by
Queen Marie), Averescu warned that a "revolution" was inevitable. He was bluffing, but the statements he issued managed to unnerve the PNL leadership. Marghiloman made one final attempt to recover the losses, relaunching the Conservative group as a "
Conservative-Progressive Party". According to historian Francisco Veiga, this was a "phantasmagorical party with an impossible name", confirming the Conservatives' self-defeat rather than the PNL's restoration. Powerful Conservative sections, such as the one in
Neamț County, were already defecting to Averescu's League, described by sociologist
Dimitrie Drăghicescu as a magnet for Conservative "wrecks and morsels". Averescu's group had a weak start in regular politics during the 1919 election, the first one to be carried out throughout Greater Romania, and the Romanians' first experience of universal male suffrage. Although popular, the League was undecided about whether to validate Văitoianu's handling of the vote, and only decided to boycott the election after its candidates had signed in. As a result, only some of the voters abstained, and likely winners, such as General
Gheorghe Cantacuzino-Grănicerul in
Vâlcea, ended up in non-eligible third places. Averescu believed that the moment to strike had not yet arrived, but, according to Marghiloman, he had missed out on a great opportunity. when Marghiloman could still claim 3.8% of the total
Parliament votes. Nevertheless, although the League had never campaigned per se in the "new regions", it received an unexpected boost in Bukovina, where it placed itself ahead of the PNL. The electorate was puzzled by the general's fence-sitting, and never again regained full confidence in his political abilities. The PȚ was most advantaged by the Averescan abstention, registering an unexpected growth throughout the enlarged country. The laurels were taken by the
Bessarabian Peasants' Party, but the Bessarabian People's League, arriving to the Assembly as a minor Conservative ally, was soon absorbed into the Averescan movement. Although absent from Parliament, Averescu exercised his influence through the PNR's
Octavian Goga, and, to his colleagues' amazement, obtained for himself the
Internal Affairs portfolio.
Arrival to power The coalition soon managed to upset the political establishment with its advocacy of total land reform. Inside and outside Parliament, the Averescans stood by the PNL and Conservative deputies in opposing Mihalache and Vaida-Voevod over how land should be divided. These events propelled Averescu to the premiership. In his acceptance speech, the general outlined his mission: "to form a barrage against all attempts at leading souls astray, against all attempts to shake up, even in the least, the social and Stately institutions"; but also to "render effective the redistribution of plots among individuals". Taking its revenge on the PNR, the Averescu administration organized a clampdown against the centrifugal local governments which still existed in the newly united provinces. On April 4, 1920, Averescu shut down Bukovina's administrative apparatus, although it had been recognized by his predecessors in office, and set up a monolingual educational system. The general sought to absorb the entire PNR into his party, but PNR leader
Iuliu Maniu successfully resisted his bid. The League's own Transylvanian section grew to include nationalist intellectuals, angered by PNR regionalism: Goga,
Vasile Lucaci and
Octavian Tăslăuanu. Some members of the Transylvanian elite followed suit. They include an aristocrat (
Anton Mocsonyi de Foeni), a
Greek-Catholic community leader (
Ioan Suciu), a left-leaning landowner (
Petru Groza), and an academic (
Ioan Ursu). Farther to the west, in the Romanian
Banat, Averescu enlisted support from regional organizer
Avram Imbroane and his
National Union. The Bessarabian chapter, overseen by Old Kingdom immigrant, poet
Dumitru Iov, had among its native politicians
Teodor Neaga,
Vladimir Bodescu and
Vladimir Chiorescu. They mounted a nationalist campaign against the Bessarabian Peasants' Party, who had sought to preserve regional autonomy. The League attracted into its ranks several Bessarabian cadres, including
Vladimir Cristi, woman activist
Elena Alistar, and, with his entire Bessarabian Peasants' Party dissidence,
Sergiu Niță. At the height of its anti-autonomy campaign, the Averescu party turned on the
ethnic minorities. The general created controversy by stressing that the political parties representing minority groups needed to be dissolved. Despite such rhetoric, the Averescans pursued a policy of practical alliances with the ethnic minority political clubs, against the centralizing and nationalist forces (PNL and the
Democratic Union Party). In
Dobruja, they courted
ethnic Bulgarians, who had not formed their own political party.
Dimo Dimitriev and a handful of conservative Bulgarians answered the call. In Transylvania, the League had a
Jewish Romanian candidate,
Henric Streitman. Running on an
assimilationist platform, he failed to convince any of Transylvania's Jewish voters. Such ambiguities were especially noticeable in Bukovina. The region's PȚ section, headed by
Dorimedont "Dori" Popovici, defected to the League on March 22, 1920. It joined up with an ethnically "purified" Averescan chapter, presided upon by sociologist
Traian Brăileanu. A third figure in that alliance was a pro-autonomy
Bukovinian German,
Alfred Kohlruss.
Consolidation and anticommunism The League's magnetism meant that Averescan sections functioned everywhere in the country. Averescu, Flondor, Goga, Imbroane, Niță and Dori Popovici held congress on April 16, 1920, when the League was officially declared a "People's Party", the first political group to register members everywhere in Greater Romania. and, after another PND schism, absorbed into its ranks the Cuza–Codreanu–Șumuleanu faction. Also in the Old Kingdom, a section of the PP soon broke off, organizing itself as the "People's Party Dissidents". The
spring 1920 election was a comfortable victory for the PP. It received 42% of the national vote for the Assembly, and 44.6% of the total. This was the first appearance of an electoral phenomenon known as "government dowry", meaning that the party in government by the time of the election could expect to win it. Moreover, the Premier pioneered the use of state channels for the distribution of party propaganda, and his
prefects acted as arbiters in the county-level electoral battles. The national score was still unusually low for a Romanian party in government, and Averescu still found it very hard to stabilize his popularity. Like his PNL competitors and the king himself, Averescu was preoccupied with the menace of
Bolshevism, and suspicious of the Socialist Party's radicalization. His
anticommunism was voiced in Parliament by PP member
D. R. Ioanițescu, who spoke for the entire parliamentary right. In contrast, another PP deputy, the Bessarabian journalist and former
anarchist Zamfir Arbore, was noted for his sympathy toward
Red Russia. The situation became explosive in October 1920, when the socialists attempted a
general strike, and the PP organized the clampdown. The government prolonged and generalized military censorship, and legislated that all conflicts between employers and workers to pass through
labor courts (the "Trancu-Iași Law"). The next year, a part of Bessarabia, perceived as especially vulnerable to Bolshevik penetration, was placed under
martial law. Averescu's handling of the situation, fully supported by the PNL, had its share of brutality. According to PS militants, his was a "class government", "terrified" by trade union growth, or even a "
White Terror" regime. The PP, and especially Cuza's extremists, enjoyed support from a number of small paramilitary groups, including the Moldavian Guard of National Awareness. Headed by
Constantin Pancu, it intimidated the PS sections and began organizing nationalist trade unions. The government expelled or relocated population groups perceived as disloyal, ordering a mass arrest of the PS splinter group, an embryonic
Communist Party. Averescu's subordinates also staged the unusually harsh trial of communist
Mihail Gheorghiu Bujor, and stood accused of murdering PS militant
Herșcu Aroneanu. Their actions were hotly debated by the mainstream opposition, not least of all because they risked destroying all chances of peace between Romania and Russia. In tandem, the Averescans extended a hand to the PS moderates, who were less likely to be influenced by the Bolshevik ideology. As Veiga writes, Averescu's Romania was uniquely positioned in respect to leftist uprisings: the Romanian left as a whole was "very weak", and the country "traversed the
great revolutionary wave without any sort of practical consequences." For their part, many opposition deputies believed that Romanian communists needed to be scolded, not stamped out. There was just one notable act of retribution: on December 9, 1920,
Max Goldstein exploded a bomb inside Parliament, killing the Conservative Party's
Dimitrie Greceanu, and injuring several others (including Argetoianu). The PS later denounced Goldstein as a profiteer and a renegade.
Toppling From the right, the PP was attacked by the PNL, who withdrew from Parliament in February 1921, prompting Averescu to renounce promises of moderation. In his public addresses, the general invoked his "responsibilities" of reforming the country. was conceived by a defecting PND parliamentarian,
Vasile Kogălniceanu, who had been Averescu's adversary during the 1907 Revolt. The PP was also pushing for an administrative reform that would increase the citizens' say in local government. It sought to legislate a measure of
women's suffrage, but this proposal was soundly defeated in Parliament. The Averescan ministers were unable to tackle the
severe economic recession, and Averescu even offered to renounce his premiership in favor of Take Ionescu. Ionescu refused, and the cabinet was locked in place until late 1921. Revisiting his stance, Averescu informed his supporters that he could only accept a PNL succession. The arrival to power of any other party would have threatened the PP's main project, of monopolizing the anti-PNL vote. offered an unexpected chance of affirmation to the PNL opposition. The PNL made a victorious comeback in the
March 1922 election. Its campaign focused on instigating hostility toward Averescu, but Brătianu's prefects also lifted censorship and allowed all parties to campaign freely. The PP, neutral toward all other anti-PNL forces, attempted to form an alliance with the Marghiloman Conservatives, while Ionescu's faction went to the PND. The Averescans dropped to 7.6% of the vote in the Assembly and 6.5% overall, although theirs was still the most important single opposition force. The PP's downfall was glaring in Bessarabia, where it failed to win any parliamentary seats. In Bukovina, the Averescan party was joined by one segment of the Jewish community, under
Mayer Ebner, but was still defeated at the ballot box.
"Orderly opposition" By 1922, as a result of the
Versailles and
Trianon treaties, the borders of "Greater Romania" had been secured, and the country, with its growing economy, officially went from 7.5 to 16.5 million inhabitants, which also seemed to compensate for her demographic losses. The PNL leadership saw the electoral success as a confirmation of its pivotal role in Romanian society, and, despite protests from the right and the left, resumed its
paternalistic approach to politics. In this uneasy climate, the PNL finally passed the
1923 Constitution, thereafter criticized as the beginning of a PNL-ist
guided democracy. As Florescu notes, "Brătianu was not inclined to renounce, even for a short while, his conductor's baton. [...] Because of this, the modernization of Romanian political life was subordinated to Ion I.C. Brătianu and the liberals, which proved to be a decisive obstacle in the natural evolution of political life, in its adjustment to the new epoch." was dedicated to antisemitic violence, popularizing the
Protocols of the Elders of Zion canard, and welcoming into its ranks the
fascist youth. Cuza still held Averescu's ideas of moral order as a source of inspiration, and the LANC tried to draw traditional PP voters into antisemitism. In their various statements, Averescu and Goga were still friendly toward Cuza, playing down LANC violence, and giving exposure to fascist propaganda. However, at the other end, Argetoianu and many of the former Conservative-Democrats left the PP and sided with the PNR, a magnet of new conservatism. Other figures of prewar conservatism made the opposite move: philosopher
Constantin Rădulescu-Motru, diplomat
Ion Mitilineu, educationist
Constantin Meissner, journalist
Andrei Corteanu, social activist
Dem. I. Dobrescu, all signed up with the PP around 1922. The Averescans still negotiated with the PNR and other Transylvanian parties, but only managed to form an alliance with the minority
Magyar Party, personally negotiated by Goga. On June 3, 1924, the Averescans staged a "triumph of democracy" march in Bucharest, threatening with a coup, and demanding that Averescu be granted the premiership.
1926 return to power cartoon of 1926, portraying Averescu and
Ion I. C. Brătianu as vermin. The peasant voter is encouraged to stamp them out at the ballot box The PP and the PNR agreed to form a "united front" against government, but Averescu made it clear that he had not lost his appetite for negotiating with Brătianu. The National Liberal tacticians eventually pushed Averescu to the forefront, allowing him to take over as Prime Minister (March 1926), but in fact maneuvering in his shadow. The Averescans were welcomed into the National Liberal high finance, with Averescu himself being appointed on the board of
Creditul Minier society. The PP government ordered for the new elections to be carried out under a single electoral law, equally valid in the Old Kingdom and the "new regions". More controversially, the cooperation between the PNL and the PP legalized the "government dowry" in an amendment to
proportional representation, ensuring the majority of parliamentary seats to any party that could absorb at least 40% of the popular vote, and obliging all registered parties to open regional sections anywhere in the country. The subsequent electoral campaign became a showdown: the PP, PNL and Peasantists each absorbed a number of smaller parties, centralizing the national vote. The PP also formalized its cartel with the Magyar Party. The
1926 election was an absolute peak for the PP, which received 52% of the total vote. In
Râmnicu Sărat County, the Averescan candidate managed an outstanding 96.6%. However, the PP's electioneering was noted for its numerous and unsanctioned abuses, including the use of state funds for People's Party propaganda and the intimidation of opposition candidates (particularity those running for the PȚ and the Bessarabian Peasantists). As the caretaker of Internal Affairs, Goga was a prime suspect. Novelist
Mihail Sadoveanu was elected in
Bihor County, Transylvania, but, together with poet
George Topîrceanu, represented a new generation of Moldavian PP cadres. The Bukovinian caucus co-opted
Antin Lukasevych and
Iurii Lysan of the
Ukrainian Social Democrats, who also won parliamentary seats, while the partnership with individual Jewish and German politicians was again revived.
Ebner, Streitman, Kohlruss and
Karl Klüger in Bukovina, and
Yehuda Leib Tsirelson in Bessarabia, were elected on the Averescan ticket. Ballot rigging only strengthened the opposition in the long run. Viewing the PP and the PNL as one
political machine, the other parties again coalesced into a single bloc. In October 1926, the PNR and PȚ created the most stable avatar of "new" politics, the
National Peasants' Party (PNȚ). It grouped together "
Green International" agrarians and classical liberals, social conservatives and socialists, driven into a revolutionary mood. After a while, the Peasantist sections were pushed into moderate positions, which allowed the PNȚ to absorb Iorga's old PND (known then as "People's Nationalist Party"). With new backing, Averescu attempted to break out of the unequal partnership with the PNL, implying that it was an "unhealthy" solution. and undermined the PNL's big finance with calls for
cooperative banking. At a time, a movement directed by the PP's own Teodor Neaga sought to bring back the old Bessarabian
zemstvos; Averescu welcomed it with speeches about decentralization, describing zemstvos as a compromise between centralism and regional autonomy. Moreover, the PP strayed from the traditional course of Romania's European policies, by obtaining a recognition of the Bessarabian union from the (nominally hostile)
Kingdom of Italy, and turning Romania away from her
Little Entente alliance.
Downfall and intrigues , the rival policymakers, attending a parade in August 1930. Snapshot by
Iosif Berman Eventually, in June 1927, the king ordered Averescu to step down. According to some reports, the deposed prime minister was outraged enough to threaten with a coup, but was quickly neutralized by the PNL. PP optimism was motivated by its victories in two partial elections, but the National Liberals focused their energies on sabotaging the Averescan candidates. Internecine disputes also undermined the PP: Lapedatu versus Manoilescu and
Constantin Garoflid; Negulescu versus Petrovici. In Bessarabia, it relied on 3.3% of the vote and lost Neaga's backing. The PP's decline was less evident in the
1928 election, carried out under a triumphant National Peasantist cabinet, which did not touch the electoral legislation. The PP formed a cartel with its former rivals, the PND. They managed 2.48% nationally. The successive deaths of Brătianu and King Ferdinand announced a major political reshuffling. PP theoretician Manoilescu sensed this, and left the party to make his debut as a
corporatist doctrinaire. A conspiracy, facilitated by the PNȚ government and by former PP men (Argetoianu, Manoilescu), granted the throne to Ferdinand's disgraced son,
Prince Carol, who would reign as Carol II. Averescu spoke out against the PNȚ tactics, staging a (futile) parliamentary walkout in 1929, By then, most of the PP elite cadres, from Garoflid to Petrovici and Filipescu, were following Manoilescu's example and resigning from the party. In the
1931 election, the Averescan candidates received a minor boost, reemerging with 4.82% of the Assembly vote. However, the PP had lost all footing in Romania's "new regions", where it had always been a minor presence. In Transylvanian counties, it received more than 10% of the vote only in
Năsăud and
Făgăraș.
PNA split and "Georgist" alliance The fascist and corporatist models became even more fashionable as the
Great Depression set in. Half of the PP broke off in 1932, setting up the
National Agrarian Party (PNA), with Octavian Goga as its president. This split was allegedly prompted by the king: Goga fully supported his dictatorial projects, while Averescu was still ambivalent. Goga made history in 1933, when he openly demanded the creation of special
concentration camps for sorting out Romanian Jews. As Veiga notes, the Guard was also able to collect the PP's upper-class voters, including Cantacuzino-Grănicerul. The PNA defection was a debilitating coup against the Averescans, who lost not just Goga, but also Ghibu, Agârbiceanu, and several high-ranking cadres (
Silviu Dragomir,
Stan Ghițescu,
Constantin Iancovescu). The PP was again able to benefit from the customary allocation of seats (called "downright absurd" by analyst Marcel Ivan): in Transylvania, where it obtained less than 2%, Averescu's men still received two Assembly seats, whereas the PNL, with 8% of the regional vote, only managed one seat. PP men witnessed the PNȚ's return to power on an anti-Carlist platform, and, although numerically irrelevant, announced that they were preparing their own comeback. Despite arousing public indignation, the PP began negotiating with both Carol and the Iron Guard, probably hoping to play one against the other. The
elections of 1933 were called by a new PNL cabinet, headed by
Ion G. Duca. The PP mobilized itself, forming a tiny cartel with
Filipescu's Conservative revivalists and the right-wing
"Georgist" Liberals. The Averescans were again interested in the German votes, and attempted to set up a satellite German Farmers' Union in Transylvania. The PP's Constitutional-and-Conservative list registered a dismal result, of less than 2% nationally. Seeing the Iron Guard and other growing parties as direct threats to the political system, Premier Duca reestablished censorship and repressive mechanisms, even before the actual voting. The Guard assassinated him that December. Its leadership was promptly jailed, the Guard was publicly defended by Averescu. It also found itself courted by King Carol, who had come to resent PNL politics. In that context, the ambitious monarch planned to create a puppet government, headed by Averescu, managed by Argetoianu, and supported by the Iron Guard. His attempt failed, returning the PP into obscurity. Instead, Carol was able to form an obedient cabinet from the PNL youth of
Gheorghe Tătărescu, with Manoilescu as adviser.
Demise 's
Țara Noastră newspaper, displaying the
National Christian Party's
swastika logo (1935) In July 1935, the PP's fascist breakaway groups, PNA and LANC, merged to form the
National Christian Party (PNC), a direct competitor of the Iron Guard. As far as traditional Averescans were concerned, the new party was nothing more than "agitatorial". In March 1937, attempting to deescalate the crisis, Tătărescu banned all political uniforms, primarily targeting the Guard and the PNC, but also outlawing the PP's yellow shirts and cockades. The
election of 1937 created two conjectural camps: the National Peasantists sealed a non-aggression pact with the Iron Guard, aiming to restrict Carol's intervention in party politics; Tătărescu's National Liberals managed to obtain conditional support from both the PP and the PNC, forming a loose alliance of Carlist interest groups. Averescu was isolated on the political scene. The "Georgists" dissolved the Constitutional Front and crossed the floor, sealing pacts with the Guard and the PNȚ. In response, the PP made vague efforts to form another cartel, with either the PNL or the PNC. For Carol II, this was an opportunity. Using his prerogative, the monarch handed power to the PNC minority (9.15% of the votes), which had promised to enact his dictatorial and corporatist program. Goga initiated discussions with the Averescans, trying to talk them into a fusion, but the two sides could not agree on how to share mandates between them. The PNC's partnership with the king broke down when Goga also began negotiating with the Guard, leading Carol to test a new political solution. In February 1938, the PNC administration was deposed. All the parties were officially banned and replaced with the
National Renaissance Front, with high offices reserved for old-regime politicians, Averescu included. In early March 1938, the Marshal officially resigned from the PP, and the party presidency was assigned by default to Negulescu. Others, however, were taken by surprise: as a distraught Trancu-Iași noted, the PP simply "fizzled out", without any official acceptance from its elected corps. After he agreed to this final compromise with King Carol, Averescu largely withdrew from public life. He maintained only some informal contacts with former PP dignitaries, such as Argetoianu, Meissner, Trancu-Iași and
Petre Papacostea. He bemoaned the passing of Romania's
repressive constitution, and refused to countersign it, but he also rejected offers to join up with a public show of protest by the PNȚ and PNL. Just as some advanced proposals to restore Averescu to the premiership, the ailing Marshal went on an extended trip abroad. He died of heart disease shortly after returning to Romania, and was granted a
state funeral. ==Ideological synthesis==