Titus Panaitescu-Vifor

Titus Panaitescu-Vifor was born on 22 July 1893 in Focșani, to Dimitrie and Hélène (née David). He had one brother, Constantin Panaitescu. Panaitescu-Vifor studied business in Thessaloniki, Greece, and later earned a doctorate in social sciences. In 1915, he co-founded a literary magazine, Făclia, with F. Hotin, to which writer Tudor Arghezi and painter Leon Biju also contributed. He published a series of plays, including Veneticul (1915) and Stând de vorbă cu moartea (1918). During the First World War, Panaitescu-Vifor served as a captain or lieutenant in Iași, and maintained a close relationship with Arghezi. Following the end of the First World War, Panaitescu-Vifor served as editor-in-chief of the military magazine Ilustrațiunea Armatei, and later as founding editor of the Iași-based newspaper Timpul. In 1918, Panaitescu-Vifor joined the populist, militarist People's Party, led by Alexandru Averescu, wherein he began to develop anti-communist, antisemitic, militarist, anti-German, and generally xenophobic ideas. Although he was initially expected to run as a People's Party candidate in the May 1920 general election, he instead ran as an independent candidate in Bucharest. Around the same time, he was also named commercial attaché (class II) of Romania to Belgium, and became co-administrator of a Belgo-Romanian petroleum company in Brussels (alongside Henri Coandă). In 1922, he officially resigned from the People's Party, and ran as head of a group called "Balanța dreptatei" ("The Scales of Justice") in the March 1922 Romanian general election. Shortly thereafter, he joined Nicolae Iorga's National Democratic Party. The same year, he established a residence in Rome. == National Romanian Fascio ==

In December 1922, following Mussolini's March on Rome in Italy, Panaitescu-Vifor co-founded Fascia Națională Română ("National Romanian Fascio", FNR), alongside a committee which included Démètre C. Pădeanu, Gheorghe Băgulescu, Gheorghe Lungulescu, Valeriu Spătaru, V. Bazgan, and D. Rădulescu. The organisation claimed inspiration from Italy's Fascists and other Western fascist regimes, and espoused militarist, monarchist, and antisemitic views. Vifor thereafter resigned from Iorga's National Democratic Party in June 1923. The group was short-lived, suffering from conflicts of leadership and police raids. In particular, a split within the FNR between Pădeanu and Panaitescu-Vifor, allegedly over an attempted merger with Elena Bacaloglu's similar National Italo-Romanian Fascist Movement (MNFIR), and a related violent attack on the Jewish editor of Adevărul, Iacob Rosenthal, (for which Panaitescu-Vifor was arrested), caused the quick disintegration of most of the FNR. == Later career ==

Panaitescu-Vifor married an Italian woman, Leda Ponzanelli, in January 1923 or 1924, with whom he had a daughter, Rodica, and possibly a son, Titus Dumitru. During and following his political involvement with the FNR, Panaitescu-Vifor began a number of business ventures in Romania, Italy, and Belgium, with a focus on agricultural and chemical imports and exports. He relocated to Venice in 1925, and worked there as an honorific commercial attaché. The same year, a pharmaceutical import business he ran from Bucharest was the subject of a scandal involving false advertising for syphilis medications. During this time, Panaitescu-Vifor also became a regular contributor to the Romanian economic newspaper Argus, publishing nationalist and pro-fascist articles with economic themes. Beginning in 1929, Panaitescu-Vifor also began to establish business ventures in Spain and Bulgaria. Vifor succeeded Isopescu as head of the propaganda service in May 1941. Panaitescu-Vifor died at some point after 1967. == References ==