National-Christian Defense League
국민기독교방위연맹
A far-right ultranationalist and antisemitic political party in interwar Romania. Its founding congress took place on 4 March 1923 in the Great Hall of the University of Iași, where Professor Alexandru C. Cuza was elected president.
In depth
Its members and supporters were known after Cuza as Cuzists. Corneliu Zelea Codreanu was tasked with organising it throughout the country and led the student protests against the 1923 constitutional amendment granting citizenship to Jews. Its central demand was a numerus clausus for minorities in the universities, and its flag bore a swastika on the yellow stripe of the Romanian tricolour. Under Averescu’s third cabinet (1926–1927) it held 10 seats in the Chamber of Deputies. In 1927 Codreanu broke away to found the Legion of the Archangel Michael, and in 1935 the League merged with Octavian Goga’s National Agrarian Party to form the National Christian Party.