People's Party (Romania, 1918–1938)
인민당 (루마니아)
An eclectic, populist mass party founded in Romania in 1918 as the People’s League by the First World War hero General Alexandru Averescu. Renamed the People’s Party in 1920, it formed Averescu’s governments of 1920–1921 and 1926–1927. It then lost support, split in 1932 and was dissolved together with the other parties in 1938.
In depth
According to the Romanian source, Averescu, who left the premiership after signing the preliminary peace with the Central Powers in February 1918, quit the army for politics and created the People’s League (from 1920 the People’s Party). The English source dates its founding to 3 April 1918. Riding on the popularity of the war hero, the party enjoyed great support especially in the countryside, an eclectic mass movement that fascists, antisemites and republicans joined alongside liberals, Jews and monarchists. The English source says it broke with the old two-party system, presented itself as the new challenger to the National Liberal Party, and was popularly called “the Averescan party”.
In the May 1920 election the party won a crushing majority and Averescu became prime minister again. His government carried out monetary unification, financial reform and land reform, but peasants were disappointed by the land reform, and with the intervention of Ion I. C. Brătianu, who had first backed him, Averescu resigned on 13 December 1921. According to the English source, Transylvanian nationalist intellectuals angered by the Romanian National Party’s regionalism, such as Octavian Goga, joined the League’s Transylvanian section, and Petru Groza was among them. Groza joined the People’s Party in April 1920 and served as a minister in Averescu’s governments.
In 1926 Averescu again accepted Brătianu’s offer and became prime minister for the third time, and the party won the 1926 election, but he clashed with Brătianu and resigned. In the July 1927 election the party failed to pass the 2% threshold for parliament. According to the English source, its radical wing split off in 1932 as the National Agrarian Party, dividing it in half, and it continued as a marginal force, losing votes to fascist and antisemitic parties. It was officially dissolved with the other democratic parties in early 1938.