Grigore Filipescu

Grigore N. Filipescu (Francized Grégoire Filipesco; October 1, 1886 – August 25, 1938) was a Romanian politician, journalist and engineer, the chief editor of Epoca daily between 1918 and 1938. He was the scion of an aristocratic conservative family, son of the statesman Nicolae Filipescu and a collateral descendant of Alexandru II Ghica. During the early stages of World War I, he and his father led a pro-Allied dissident wing of the Conservative Party. After serving on the front, and behind the lines to 1918, as aide to General Alexandru Averescu, Filipescu Jr. became his political adviser. He had a stint in the Labor Party, merged into Averescu's own People's Party. Filipescu served as the latter group's tactician and campaigner, but had irreconcilable differences with Averescu.

Known as an antagonist who fought duels with his political rivals, Filipescu switched parties frequently, hoping to coalesce the conservative groups around himself. He served terms in Parliament and held several other public commissions as an affiliate of the Romanian National Party, the Conservative-Democratic Party, and the National Peasants' Party. In 1929, he founded his own Vlad Țepeș League (later branded "Conservative Party"), which was instrumental in ensuring the ascendancy to the throne of King Carol II, the banished heir. The League participated in the coalition backing Prime Minister Nicolae Iorga, but spoke out against Iorga's debt relief legislation. Withdrawing from government, Filipescu remained one of the few politicians who still supported economic liberalism during the Great Depression.

Although suspected of harboring authoritarian tendencies, Filipescu was a public critic of fascism, who supported a continental alliance against Nazi Germany and a pragmatic rapprochement with the Soviet Union. This cause brought him an international reputation, but failed to win him popularity at home. In his final years, before his death from unsuccessful blood transfusion in Geneva, Filipescu stood out as a critic of King Carol, joining efforts with Iuliu Maniu and Nicolae Titulescu. His parallel career as a civil servant and businessman had culminated in his appointment as Romanian Telephone Company president, in which capacity he served from 1930 to the time of his death. This assignment was also marked by scandals involving his confirmed wiretapping of political targets, and also his alleged mismanagement.

Biography

Early life and career

A native of Bucharest, he was the first of five children born to Nicolae Filipescu and his wife Maria Blaremberg; he had a brother and three sisters.^[1] He came from an old boyar family on his father's side: the Filipescus had founded the eponymous town Filipeștii de Târg, ca. 1600.^[2] His great-grandparents were Hatman Nicolae Filipescu and Safta Hrisoscoleu, who were also the maternal grandparents of Ion G. Duca,^[3] Grigore's later rival in politics. His great-granduncle, Alecu Filipescu-Vulpea, had served as Logothete and Ban to the court of Wallachia.^[4] On his mother's side, Grigore descended from the Franco–Russian Blarembergs and, collaterally, from the Ghica family. His great-grandfather, Colonel Vladimir de Blaremberg, claimed Huguenot lineage, but was more likely an illegitimate Bourbon.^[5] He married a sister of Prince Alexandru II Ghica. Their union produced three sons, of whom politician Nicolae Moret Blaremberg was the eldest, and Constantin, Filipescu's grandfather, was the second born. Married to Maria Băleanu, he inherited most of the Ghica estate in Moara Vlăsiei, which later went to the Filipescus.^[5][6] Grigore's cousins on the Ghica side included philanthropist Vladimir Ghika^[5] and diplomat Dimitrie I. Ghika, who was briefly Minister of Foreign Affairs.^[7]

After attending primary school in Bucharest, Grigore was sent to Lycée Louis-le-Grand. In 1902, he enrolled in the Zürich Polytechnic, graduating in 1907. After becoming an engineer, he studied at the law faculty of the University of Paris, earning a qualification as a lawyer.^[8] In 1909, Filipescu married Ioana (born 1890), daughter of Matei B. Cantacuzino and a representative of the Cantacuzene aristocrats. The couple had no children.^[9]

While it appears he never practiced law, as an engineer he worked on several projects, the most important of which was the Câmpina–Constanța petroleum pipeline. For his merits, he would later receive the Legion of Honour and the Order of Ferdinand I.^[10] By 1910, the younger Filipescu was also a promoter of sports. This passion ran in the family: Constantin Blaremberg had enjoyed horse racing, and pioneered sports journalism with the newspaper Sportul.^[11] Filipescu himself was a great lover of fencing, both as spectator and as participant. In November 1911 he organized the largest athletic event in Romania up to that date, himself taking part in matches.^[12] The following year, alongside Crown Prince Carol, Ottokar Czernin, and Alexandru Davila, he took part in the wax bullet dueling competition of Sinaia, designed as marksmanship practice.^[13] He was also passionate about horse racing.^[12]

At the beginning of his political career, Filipescu belonged to his father's Conservative Party (PC), which competed for power with the National Liberal Party (PNL). He first rose to prominence during the earliest stages of World War I, when Romania was still a neutral country: in 1914, he joined a commission headed by Colonel Vasile Rudeanu, which was tasked with negotiating arms deals in Italy, France, and Switzerland.^[14] In 1916, upon Grigore's intercession, Nicolae merged his faction with Take Ionescu's Conservative-Democratic Party to form the Conservative-Nationalist Party.^[15] This group supported a Romanian alliance with the Entente nations, whereas the mainstream PC sympathized with the Central Powers.^[16]

During 1915, networking between Romania and France, Filipescu jr helped his father by denouncing the mainline Conservatives. He focused on Alexandru Marghiloman, who stood accused of plotting to establish a Germanophile cabinet and of consciously undermining France–Romania relations.^[17] In an interview with Le Journal, Grigore backed Nicolae's "arduous interventionist campaign", expressing regret that Romania had failed to strike the Central Powers in conjunction with the Gallipoli Campaign. However, he noted that the PNL's neutralism had "some arguments in its favor."^[18] At times, his sporting interests interfered with his politics: at the Bucharest Jockey Club in early 1916, he had a publicized row with Hilmar von dem Bussche-Haddenhausen, ambassador of the German Empire.^[19]

Filipescu family arms, late 19th-century variant

Blaremberg and Moret family arms

The elder Filipescu died later that year, as Romania entered World War I an Entente ally; shortly after, an invasion by the Central Powers prompted the Ententist administration to withdraw into Moldavia. Grigore followed the Romanian administration and saw action on the front, advancing to the rank of Sub-lieutenant, while also joining the Labor Party, formed in 1917 by George Diamandy and other left-wing defectors from the PNL.^[20]

People's League and Epoca

Around that time, Filipescu identified General Alexandru Averescu, his direct superior, as an ideal leader for a new anti-establishment, anti-PNL, political movement: popular and easily manipulated.^[21] According to the hostile recollections of PNL man Gheorghe Gh. Mârzescu, it was Filipescu who organized the torchlight parade of January 1918, in which Averescu was hailed as "tomorrow's government leader".^[22] Various Labor Party figures soon drifted toward Averescu's People's League (LP, later "People's Party", or PP), of which Filipescu was a founding member that April.^[22][23] An LP tactician, Filipescu was credited with having drawn his father-in-law into the League, and to have ensured a state of equilibrium between the Laborites and the far-right circles led by A. C. Cuza.^[24]

During that interval, with Conservative-Nationalist backing, Averescu briefly served as Prime Minister of the Romanian rump state, and sued for peace with the Central Powers; this was eventually signed by Averescu's Conservative replacement, Marghiloman. Filipescu was included on the team of negotiators under Take Ionescu, but his presence there was vetoed by the Austro-Hungarian delegation.^[25] He had already left the front for Averescu's Bacău headquarters,^[23] and was allegedly entrusted with the sanitation department in that city, resulting in his derogatory nickname Filipescu-Mătură ("Filipescu-Broom").^[26] This civilian job was ridiculed by the PNL press, which accused Filipescu of being a draft-avoider; Filipescu reacted with a virulent letter to PNL's Duca, his relative. The two dueled with pistols in Iași, but purposefully missed.^[27] Filipescu remained an ardent practitioner of dueling (a practice learned from his father) and a habitual litigator.^[28]

Filipescu was again in Bucharest during the resumption of war and the period leading up to Germany's surrender. His father had founded Epoca newspaper in 1885, and in September 1918, the son decided to revive the moribund outfit, buying the trademark from its nominal owner, Timoleon Pisani.^[29] Filipescu and Constantin Argetoianu identified two financiers, Aristide Blank and Jean Chrissoveloni. In exchange for backing from the latter two, the newspaper owners joined the administration of Marmorosch Blank Bank,^[10] alongside Duca, Toma Stelian, and Alexandru Vaida-Voevod.^[30] Blank's involvement would fuel the suspicions of antisemitic groups that the newspaper was a tool of the Jews. While Blank's influence was exaggerated, he did have a say in the editorial policy.^[10] For instance, when an article critical of Liviu Rebreanu was slated to appear, the financier convinced Filipescu not to run the story.^[31] Instead, in 1919 Epoca published a dossier on Marghiloman's wartime stances.^[32]

For a while, Filipescu was seen as leading the LP from behind the scenes while Argetoianu was a more public face; both men also tried to co-opt Constantin Stere, but the latter refused.^[33] In advance of by-elections scheduled to be held in Moldavia, Filipescu wished to organize agitation, protests and street battles.^[34] Reportedly, he also played a part in organizing the general strike on December 25, 1918, approaching Socialist Party militant Ilie Moscovici, with an offer to challenge government censorship.^[35] Filipescu also had a rivalry with Nicolae Titulescu, the Minister of Finance, whom he accused of irresponsibility (allegedly because of direct taxes which harmed Filipescu's private interests) and, later, of extravagance.^[36] Averescu objected to Filipescu's rebellious plans, and the latter quit the LP (according to Averescu and Argetoianu's accounts, he was in fact thrown out of the movement by Averescu, who objected to his factionalism).^[22][34]

Filipescu, still seen as an "ardent Averescan", tried to negotiate the LP's arrival to power by talking directly to Romania's Queen Marie.^[22] Before the election of May 1920, he entered the Romanian National Party (PNR), a rising conservative group from Transylvania, being one of its few affiliates from the "Old Kingdom". He took a seat in Parliament as a PNR representative.^[37] Nevertheless, by 1921 Filipescu had renewed his contact with Ionescu, affiliating with the reestablished Conservative-Democratic Party; Epoca served as the latter's mouthpiece. At the time, it drew attention with its attacks on the PNR leadership, whom Filipescu had accused of disloyalty toward Greater Romania.^[38]

PNR return

In December 1921, after Averescu's departure as Prime Minister, Ionescu was charged with forming a new government, and Filipescu, who assured him of having a parliamentary majority, persuaded him to accept. His hope was to form a new party comprising elements of the two conservative parties plus dissidents from the People's Party (PP, which LP had become) and the PNR. While Ionescu only lasted a month as premier, he became close to Nicolae Iorga, who won multiple seats in the Assembly of Deputies. He ceded one of them to Ionescu, who in turn handed it to Filipescu.^[39] Following Ionescu's death later in 1922, Filipescu approached Iorga in an attempt to merge with his Democratic Nationalist Party (PND), but negotiations ultimately collapsed. He and Constantin Xeni also tried to convince both Argetoianu and Iorga to re-establish the defunct PC, but personal acrimony between the latter two precluded the plan from fruition.^[40]

The inauguration in January of a new PNL cabinet, headed by Ion I. C. Brătianu, prompted the scattered opposition to begin attempts at fusion. In November 1922, the PNR absorbed the remnants of Ionescu's formation, thus extending its reach into the Old Kingdom. Filipescu was persuaded to do the same, helping with negotiations between the two sides in Dolj County and in Bucharest, where he also sponsored a reconciliation banquet.^[41] An anti-Filipescu wing of the Ionescu Conservatives, under Iulian Vrăbiescu survived and joined the PND, hampering negotiations over a merger between the latter and the PNR.^[42]

Initially, Filipescu was visibly involved in PNR caucus, having managed to impose on the new party his and Ionescu's pro-Entente, anti-German foreign policy.^[43] He spent the period circulating leaks from Mârzescu and other PNL whistle-blowers, who informed him about Brătianu's sale of Romanian passports, and, in the Assembly, initiated a motion of no confidence.^[44] In February 1923, he was active in the by-election of Ighiu, denouncing fraud and being chased away at gunpoint by the Gendarmerie.^[45] This "Ighiu recipe" was again alleged in the March 1924 election at Balș, when Filipescu had another row with the Gendarmes.^[46] Later that year, during local elections at Dej, Filipescu slapped the supervisor, Teodor Herman. The manner fueled much controversy, as Herman was also a priest.^[47] This incident endangered the seat he still held in the Assembly, when his colleagues voted to have his immunity removed. Filipescu openly admitted to his deed and asked to be tried by a jury, but also stated that he did not recognize the Assembly's legitimacy, deeming it fraudulent. Eventually, the matter was dropped, as consensus was never reached.^[30]

Filipescu also sat on a 150-member executive committee and headed the PNR's Bucharest chapter, but did not hold a leading position within the party. He also did not get along very well with the Transylvanian colleagues, a sentiment that deepened in him and other former Ionescu partisans (takiști) when negotiations for a merger with the left-wing Peasants' Party began.^[48][49] Moreover, in December 1923, Filipescu and Iorga had a publicized quarrel, which began when Iorga criticized the late Nicolae Filipescu. The incensed son threatened him with a duel.^[50] By 1924, Iorga notes, Filipescu opposed the PNR–PND fusion "for the principle of it".^[51]

Epoca had ceased publication in August 1923, was revived in February 1926. In fact, it was Filipescu's personal newspaper and always mirrored his views. His favorite targets were the royal camarilla, in particular Queen Marie, her lover Barbu Știrbey, D. R. Ioanițescu and, when not allied with him, PNȚ leader Iuliu Maniu.^[52] Journalist Calman Blumenfeld-Scrutator argues that the PNR's disregard for Epoca's attacks on Știrbey was disastrous for the party. Often friendly toward Maniu, Știrbey was persuaded to maneuver in favor of Averescu, who unexpectedly became Prime Minister in March 1926.^[48] According to a disputed account by socialist leader Constantin Titel Petrescu, in April, before the Bucharest Commune, Filipescu presented himself as the head of a "Conservative Group", which signed its own alliance pact with the Peasants' Party and the Social Democratic Party.^[53] During the by-elections of September, which witnessed a steady climb for the PNL, Filipescu openly accused Averescu of collusion and fraud.^[54]

The merger with the Peasantists did take place in October 1926, giving rise to the National Peasants' Party (PNȚ). Filipescu and other takiști found themselves increasingly isolated, and in April 1927 defected to the PP.^[55] Speaking at a PP rally in Focșani before the campaign of 1928, he declared himself an enemy of "demagoguery", but also acknowledged that Romania was ripe for democracy. Filipescu also denounced the PNL's "dictatorship" and claimed to expose the government's incompetence.^[56] Filipescu was still focused on attacking Știrbey and the PNL's Brătianu family. However, he soon found himself at odds with Averescu, who had asked him to be lenient on Știrbey. Instead, together with his followers, Filipescu left the PP for a second and final time, in March 1929.^[57]

LVȚ and Carlism

The first-ever call from Bucharest to New York City, on December 25, 1931. Filipescu, as president of the Romanian Telephone Company, is in the middle, with ITT Corporation staff on the right; to his left, ministers Victor Vâlcovici of Public Works and Dimitrie I. Ghika of Foreign Affairs

He founded the Vlad Țepeș League (LVȚ) in June 1929,^[58] amidst a campaign he supported to place Prince Carol, Știrbey's enemy, on the throne. As noted by one of its members, the industrialist Alfred Cerchez, the League had the Carlist agenda for a primary objective.^[59] Carol returned triumphantly in 1930, after a campaign in which Epoca represented the moderate side. Filipescu debated with the more radical Carlist Nae Ionescu, who had been harshly critical of the Romanian Regency regime.^[60] Adding to the ambiguities was that Știrbey also supported the returning king, as did Filipescu's German enemies. In late 1930, Filipescu intercepted and published a letter from the German Ambassador Gerhard von Mutius, in which the latter excoriated Epoca and defended Știrbey. Filipescu, who demanded a duel, accused von Mutius of being the agent of German revisionism.^[61]

Beyond its monarchist agenda, the LVȚ was eclectic and factionalized, including in its ranks national conservatives or fascist sympathizers such as Amos Frâncu and Gheorghe Cantacuzino-Grănicerul.^[62] Filipescu's own support for Carlism was read by Western observers as a form of right-wing extremism. Around 1930, he was referred to in the English-speaking media as a "Baby Fascist" or a Romanian replica of Adolf Hitler.^[63] However, a keen observer of foreign politics, Filipescu was a frequent critic of Benito Mussolini's Italy, which caused him to decline the post of Foreign Minister.^[64]

Reconciling with Titulescu, who supported similar views at the League of Nations,^[26] Filipescu became the first president of the Romanian Telephone Company (SART), partly privatized in 1929,^[65] serving from 1930 until his death. He also presided over the Tobacco Monopoly and a number of other commercial enterprises.^[66] His term at SART saw the purchase of controlling interest by ITT Corporation, then the construction of the Bucharest Telephone Palace, completed in 1933, and back the tallest building in Romania.^[67] This assignment became the focus of additional controversy, with critics noting that, although the company was profitable, and the third-larges ITT subsidiary, services had improved only by a slim margin.^[68] He was denounced by the PNȚ's Virgil Madgearu, who audited the Company and found that Filipescu took a monthly salary of 100,000 lei, more than three times what a minister made—and, effectively, a lifeline for Epoca.^[69] A nationalist deputy, Leon Scridon, also accused Filipescu of running errands for Hungarian and Jewish entrepreneurs, and publicized alleged proof of mismanagement.^[65] For his part, Filipescu noted that the Romanian state was habitually cheating on the company's American shareholders, diverting investments and forcing them to accept redundant employees.^[70] From his managerial position, Filipescu also obtained intercepts of calls. This allowed him to spy on behalf of Carol, who consequently protected Filipescu against all backlash.^[71]

By April 1931, Filipescu and the LVȚ were backing the Maniu government, being opposed to the dissolution of Parliament—as demanded by the other opposition parties.^[72] In return, Filipescu asked and obtained for himself the prefecture of Ilfov County. This office was widely seen as beyond his prestige and competence, but he explained that he cold contribute to regional prosperity.^[73] Also winning a Senate seat in the election of June, in which the LVȚ ran as an ally of Iorga's Democratic Nationalists,^[74] Filipescu gave a speech on "common sense in politics". He presented his group as Romania's only truthful party, and the only one which addressed the worldwide perils engulfing Romania. In 2005, philologist Elvira Sorohan rediscovered the speech as a "lesson in rhetorical elegance" and Europeanism.^[75] Again turning his attention to the West, Filipescu repeatedly asked Prime Minister Iorga to make him Ambassador to Switzerland, and also sought high offices for LVȚ figures. Such moves were blocked by Carol, Titulescu, and other members of the establishment.^[76]

At a League congress in November 1931, Filipescu announced that the LVȚ was primarily a replica of Britain's Conservative and Unionist Party, and a direct successor to his father's own Conservative Party.^[77] On March 10, 1932, the League became the Conservative Party (PC), with Epoca as its political organ.^[78] The group thus withdrew its support for the Iorga cabinet, explicitly rejecting its plan to tackle the Great Depression with debt relief, and defending the core tenets of economic liberalism.^[79] Argetoianu, the Minister of Finance, recalled that "ever since the Relief, Epoca has been addressing me Gypsy swearwords."^[10] That year, the most famous of Filipescu's duels, covered by newspapers in the United States, Spain and France, involved Gheorghe I. Brătianu, who had insulted Filipescu in print. Mihail R. Sturdza was also challenged, and the plan was to use pistols followed by swords. A bullet hit the latter's pants, while Brătianu and Filipescu made peace.^[80] His relations with other politicians were inconsistent: Argetoianu, Titulescu, Maniu and many others veered between being his friends and his enemies.^[12]

Filipescu still exercised intellectual influence over the political class with his stance on debt and, in 1933, sparked a national debate over the need to restore the country risk to more manageable levels—in effect, for austerity.^[81] The PC formed a cartel with the PP during the December 1933 election, but registered dismal results.^[82][83] The race was won by the PNL, with Duca being confirmed as Prime Minister. By then, the PC was losing its support base on the right, with Cantacuzino and other cadres migrating toward the Iron Guard, an openly fascist movement, or trying to persuade General Ion Antonescu into reviving the Vlad Țepeș League.^[84] Filipescu also ran, unsuccessfully, for a deputy seat in Ilfov during the by-elections of 1934.^[85]

Against Nazism and the Iron Guard

Filipescu took a stand against far-right violence and, already in July 1930, asked that Gheorghe Beza, a former Epoca reporter^[86] who had tried to kill the PNL's Constantin Angelescu, be put to death. That "extreme" approach was criticized at the time by the left-wing paper Adevărul, which also noted that Filipescu had little in the way of practical solutions against fascist agitation.^[87] Reportedly, in late 1931, Filipescu himself escaped unharmed after shots were fired at his automobile.^[88] In early 1934, Premier Duca's assassination by an Iron Gard death squad signaled a period of uncertainty, and seemed to ensure a pretext for Carol's authoritarianism. By then, Filipescu and Maniu were mainly visible as the sworn enemies of the king, whom they had come to see as an autocratic figure, forcing them into talks about forming the democratic opposition.^[89] Having held on to a Senate seat, Filipescu pressured Gheorghe Tătărescu's government to report on its policies after Duca's assassins had been tried and sentenced; this effort was backed by the PNȚ's Grigore Gafencu and Mihail Mora.^[90]

As Conservative leader, he drafted a strategy against Carol's state of emergency, which legalized political censorship, and invited the PP, the PNȚ, the Radical Peasants' Party and the Georgist Liberals to join him in this effort.^[91] In August, he hosted in Bucharest a grand reception in honor of Maniu.^[92] By then, the groups involved had agreed on several demands, including that Carol should renounce his mistress, Elena Lupescu, and that Gavrilă Marinescu be removed from the leadership of Romanian Police.^[93] At the Telephone Palace, Filipescu switched from spying on behalf of the king to intercepting the royal court itself, obtaining information which made its way Maniu and Titulescu.^[94] In December, the issue of intercepts erupted into national scandal, with claims that American spies were acting as ITT staff. This rumor prompted Siguranța agents to search the Telephone Palace and Filipescu's home. Widely seen as compromised by the affair, Filipescu was again protected by the king.^[95]

Throughout those years, Filipescu was frequently in Paris and Geneva, where he gave interviews and wrote for local newspapers. His Francophile sympathies were commented on by 1918, and in March 1935, L'Ouest-Éclair republished an article of his in which Filipescu decried the possibility of an alliance between Romania and Nazi Germany.^[96] He was also critical of Pierre Laval over his rapprochement with Italy, and called this line "detrimental to Romania's interest."^[97] While valued by the Western media, Filipescu had a fairly negative image in his own country,^[98] where, he noted, the major current of thought was pro-Laval and pro-Mussolini.^[97] In December 1935, he visited Berlin and had a meeting with Hermann Göring, who was trying to talk Romania out of a defensive rapprochement with the Soviet Union.^[99] At the time, Filipescu was still highly critical of peace with the Soviets: Petre Constantinescu-Iași, of the underground Romanian Communist Party and the pro-Soviet Amicii URSS, accused Filipescu of being a "reactionary" enemy of his antifascist initiative.^[100]

According to the French journalist Georges Oudard, the PC was a strong defender "of economic and financial orthodoxy against the temptations of a coming world", "head-turning censorship" with Filipescu's "cruel wit".^[101] Filipescu held conferences both at home and abroad; the former focused on domestic political life, while the latter were oriented toward international relations. Some of the internally-focused speeches also included explicit condemnations of the Romanian far-right. Filipescu argued that the policies of such groups would only strengthen the left, citing the French riots of 1934 as followed by the consolidated Popular Front. He also noted that Romanian far-right groups were farcical, in that they had no respect for property rights, proposing instead a nationalism that was both "civilized" and "generous". Filipescu insisted that the best defense against communism was not fascism, but rather a "strengthened coalition of the moderate parties."^[97]

In 1936, Filipescu joined Lord Cecil's International Peace Campaign, serving as vice president of its chapter, alongside Petru Groza and Constantin Rădulescu-Motru; Titulescu was its president.^[102] Perhaps his most important speech, held in Paris in May of that year and published in brochure form, proposed a Europe-wide bloc composed of France, Italy, the Little Entente, the Balkan Entente and the Soviet Union, which would help secure borders threatened by revisionism and keep the peace. The same speech proposed a mutual assistance pact between the Soviets and Romania.^[103] Nevertheless, he also militated for better Bulgaria–Romania relations.^[104]

His condemnation of Italian, German and Portuguese participation at the funerals of Ion Moța and Vasile Marin (organized by the Iron Guard in January 1937) drew notice from the Swiss, French and Dutch press.^[96] The event also reconciled him with Carol, who took advice from Filipescu and the PNȚ's Ion Mihalache on how to handle the fascist crisis.^[105] He ran on the PNȚ list in the local election of April 1937, taking a seat in the Yellow Sector of Bucharest^[65] and becoming widely tipped as a potential deputy to the Mayor of Bucharest.^[106] The period saw Epoca's targeted attacks on Guard sympathizer Mihail Manoilescu. During the resulting trial for libel, Filipescu was able to produce evidence that Manoilescu, despite being antisemitic, had not refused bribes from Jewish businesses.^[107]

Downfall, disease, and death

Ghica Palace in Moara Vlăsiei, 2013 photograph

Also that year, Filipescu joined the Crown Council and took part in the meeting that removed Prince Nicholas from the royal family, reluctantly voting with the majority.^[108] As such, during his final months, Filipescu was again in conflict with the king. Addressing his party colleagues in October 1937, he demanded that the PNL government step down and be replaced by a Mihalache cabinet. Also then, he depicted fascism as "more redolent of Bolshevism than of the conservative doctrine", and rejected all violent solution to the "Jewish Question". He demanded that the state allocate its resources to combating fascism and defending the Jews.^[109]

During the local elections of early 1937, the PC, the PNȚ, and the Social Democrats were allied, with underground support from the communists. They sought to contain the Iron Guard and the National Christian Party, but failed to attract crucial support from other left-wing groups.^[110] Despite such anti-fascism, in the December 1937 elections Filipescu's Conservatives closely followed the Maniu party line, which brought them into a "non-aggression pact" with the Iron Guard—and against Carol's PNL favorites.^[111] After various disputes, he was assigned an eligible position on the PNȚ Bucharest list for the Assembly, third behind Maniu and Nicolae L. Lupu.^[112] Together with Maniu, he welcomed back to the country the self-exiled Titulescu, who was by then a critic of Carol's regime.^[113]

Over the following months, Carol led a clampdown against democratic and far-right parties alike. His authoritarian constitution and single-party regime pushed the PC into the underground. In March 1938, Filipescu indefinitely suspended party activities, noting that the group was rendered irrelevant by the "great upheavals facing or continent". As his right-wing critics argued, the party was by then inconsistent, drawn into alliances with the left, and ultimately "useless and ridiculous."^[82] In May, due to financial problems caused by press restrictions, Filipescu also announced Epoca's effective closure.^[64] A heart condition inherited from his father forced him to retire from politics and spend time raising race horses and farming. In August 1938, he entered a hospital in Geneva. Twelve days later, following a heart attack, he was successfully operated upon. His continued weakness required a blood transfusion, which was again accepted by his organism. However, a second transfusion proved fatal. When he died, he was surrounded by his mother, wife and private secretary.^[63] His body was returned home, with a funeral service taking place at the city's Russian Church; a second one was held at Batiștei Church. The burial took place at Bellu cemetery.^[114] Filipescu's death was mourned in central newspapers such as Timpul and Dreptatea as the demise of a "cavalier", "the last authentic boyar".^[114]

Grigore was survived by his mother Maria until 1954,^[11] and by his widow Ioana until 1971.^[1] As Romania entered World War II alongside Germany, SART continued to be under American management. In 1941, ITT resold its shares to the Romanian state. This allowed the ITT to repatriate its assets just as Romania and the US declared war on each other.^[115] The Filipescu family estate at Moara Vlăsiei hosted the diplomatic corps of Vichy France, then was requisitioned for storage space.^[116] By 1948, with the onset of Romanian communism, the estate and its collection were nationalized—despite pleas from the surviving Filipescus and Blarembergs.^[117]

Communist repression directly touched the family by the 1950s, when a Catholic cousin, Vladimir Ghika, died in prison as punishment for his missionary work.^[5] Nevertheless, Filipescu's politics were revisited by later communist historiographers. They posthumously granted him recognition as one of the anti-fascist intellectuals who had formed a "broad front" with the Communist Party. As later noted by historian Lucian Boia, this was a spurious list "of those who contributed, evidently without so wishing, to the legitimizing of the communist regime".^[118] In 2008, political scientist Ioan Stanomir described the "bizarre political figure" Filipescu and his Epoca as afterthoughts of Romanian conservatism—by then, the "statist, autarkist, nationalist" PNL had won its "victory".^[119]

Notes

References

• Bulletin Périodique de la Presse Roumaine, No. 102, December 3, 1931.
• Armin Heinen, Legiunea 'Arhanghelul Mihail': o contribuție la problema fascismului internațional. Bucharest: Humanitas, 2006. ISBN 973-50-1158-1
• Narcis Dorin Ion, "Istoria unei vechi reședințe domnești. Palatul Ghica din Căciulați (Ilfov)", in Monumentul, X: Lucrările Simpozionului Național Monumentul – Tradiție și viitor, 2008, pp. 203–223.
• Nicolae Iorga, Memorii. Vol. V: Agonia regală și regența. Bucharest: Editura Naționala Ciornei, 1939. OCLC 935564396
• Victor Moldovan, Memoriile unui politician din perioada interbelică. Vol. I. Cluj-Napoca: Presa Universitară Clujeană, 2016. ISBN 978-973-595-971-5
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