National Christian Party

The National Christian Party (Romanian: Partidul Național Creștin) was a far-right, authoritarian, and strongly antisemitic political party in the Kingdom of Romania, active between 1935 and 1938. It was formed by a merger of Octavian Goga's National Agrarian Party (PNA) and A. C. Cuza's National-Christian Defense League (LANC). Among its members was the philosopher Nichifor Crainic, the party's main ideologue. In December 1937, Goga was chosen by King Carol II to form a government that included Cuza; the government lasted only 44 days and was followed by a royal dictatorship under Carol II. The party's members were commonly nicknamed the “Gogo-Cuzists” or simply “Cuzists”, referring to Cuza's wing within the party and the former LANC militants, who were far more notorious than Goga's PNA due to violent street clashes and virulent antisemitic rhetoric throughout the 1920s.

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 (LANC) 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), 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.

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. Beginning in 1933, continuing in 1934 and 1935, 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.

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 Lăncierii paramilitary wing, flags (the Romanian tricolor bearing the swastika), and similar means of action — such as violently repressing the Legionary Movement and carrying out systematic genocides against Jews with its assault battalions.

By 1935, the political climate in Romania was turbulent, with traditional political parties criticizing King Carol II's royal camarilla, authoritarian tendencies, and lavish lifestyle. Unlike his predecessors, Carol did not rely on political parties and saw himself as above the party leaders. Carol insisted that ministers answer to him rather than to party leaders; he appointed ministers directly and ruled unconstitutionally on several occasions, hence his actions to weaken the parties he did not trust by supporting splinter groups and dissidents, attracting their leading figures to his side, etc. Carol's camarilla was made up of influential figures in Romanian society, including industrialists Nicolae Malaxa and Max Auschnitt, banker Aristide Blank, economist Mihail Manoilescu, and his mistress Elena Lupescu, whose family controlled a wide network of businesses in Romania.

Parties such as the National Liberal Party-George Brătianu (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. King Carol II was aware of the threat the anti-carlist opposition posed to his plans for uncontested authoritarian rule. Carol undertook various actions to weaken the traditional political parties, fostering division within the National Liberal Party by supporting Gheorghe Tătărescu's wing. Carol asked Tătărescu to form a government in 1934, which lasted until 1937. Additionally, he sought to undermine the influence and cohesion of the National Peasants' Party in the Transylvania region by using Ion Mihalache, the PNȚ vice president, against party leader Iuliu Maniu. The PNȚ’s division was accentuated by Vaida-Voevod's split, who left the party in 1935 to created his own fascist party, the Romanian Front. Vaida-Voevod's party promoted Numerus Valachicus — a policy that prioritized ethnic Romanians over minorities. The party also organized paramilitary assault battalions, similar to the blue-shirted Lăncieri of the PNC and the green-shirted Iron Guard 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.

To further weaken the traditional political parties and the strongly anti-carlist Legionary Movement, King Carol II supported the idea of a party that would be loyal to him and to the monarchy. It was a strategic move that helped him push back against the anti-carlists and tighten his authoritarian grip on power, paving the way toward establishing his own royal dictatorship — something he had been striving for ever since his return to the throne in June 1930. Carol wanted to govern, not just reign. A.L. Easterman hypothesizes that Carol had placed the PNC in power "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.