Romanian Front
The Romanian Front (Romanian: Frontul Românesc) was a fascist party created in 1935 led by Alexandru Vaida-Voevod as a splinter group from the National Peasants' Party.[1]
History
The Front had its roots in the second and third governments of Vaida-Voevod (1932 and 1933), which were characterized by growing levels of antisemitism and discussions regarding the possibility of barring Jews from a number of public posts, to the background Iron Guard agitation.
After the collapse of the government and the emergence of Gheorghe Tătărescu as Prime Minister, the Romanian Front was born (in 1935) to pursue a more aggressive policy of anti-Semitism and fascism.[2] The Front failed to prosper however, as the new government introduced some laws against the Jews, whilst also seeking to deliberately contain the new party.[3] They continued to agitate for more stringent anti-Jewish laws, and made speeches accusing the Jewish population of fraud, media control and blood libel. However the Front was one of a number of parties officially subsumed by the National Renaissance Front when King Carol II decreed its formation in 1938.[4]
As a result, the Front moved closer to the Nazi position, although despite Romania's support for the Axis Powers during World War II, the Front gained no special treatment. It did not survive 1944, the year Romania switched sides in the conflict, and their remnants were stamped out when a communist regime was established.
References
- ↑ Chronology of Romanian Fascism
- ↑ Ivan T. Berend, Decades of crisis: Central and Eastern Europe before World War II, University of California Press, 2001, p.335
- ↑ 'Background and Precursors to the Holocaust', p. 17
- ↑ Adrian Webb, The Routledge Companion to Central and Eastern Europe Since 1919, Routledge, 2008, p. 152
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