Peasants' Party (Romania) - Creation and Activities

Creation and Activities

Although preceded by attempts to create a peasant party that would challenge the existing situation (began in the 1880s with a group around Constantin Dobrescu-Argeş, registered in 1895 as Partida Ţărănească — an alternative, if antiquated, version with the same meaning of "Peasants' Party"), the PŢ was ultimately made possible by the World War itself - which Romania had entered, in 1916, on the side of the Entente. In 1917, the need for a rapid mobilization had led to King Ferdinand's promises of a new and major agricultural reform (which came about in 1921), and universal suffrage (proclaimed in 1918, it was confirmed by the 1923 Constitution as suffrage granted to all males). At the same time, the Versailles system confirmed the concept of a Greater Romania (comprising formerly Austro-Hungarian Transylvania and Bukovina, as well as the previously Russian Bessarabia), which gave way to new economic realities - an industrial base in Transylvania, and a largely enfranchised peasantry in Bessarabia (which had always been excepted from serfdom). The political foundation was shaken by the disappearance of the Conservative Party (and the fading out of conservative politics in Romania), due mainly to extended suffrage and the pro-German attitudes of the Party at the outbreak of the war. While this opened the political scene to other options, it also further solidified the PNL's supremacy for the following years, and the popularity of the Liberal leader Ion I. C. Brătianu.

The Peasants' Party was founded in Bucharest on December 18, 1918, around a group of rural intelligentsia (mainly teachers and priests) led by Ion Mihalache, "as the only political instrument ensuring the full and honest fulfilment of the peasantry's material and spiritual needs". The PŢ also described its position as "a means to protect from both Bolshevism and the fate reserved to it by the boyar parties to become a governmental dowry they aim to use for their own gains". Two months later, it joined forces with the Iaşi-formed Laborer Party (Partidul Muncitor), which had grouped figures such as Paul Bujor, Nicolae Costăchescu, Iorgu Iordan, Ioan Borcea, Octav Băncilă, and Constantin Ion Parhon; for a while during 1919, the united party existed under the name Peasants' and Laborer Party (Partidul Ţărănesc şi Muncitor), before again adopting the 1918 version.

Especially considering its recent emergence, the Party registered a major success in the 1919 Parliament elections (61 seats), as well as the presidency of the Chamber and Senate (Mihalache and Bujor respectively) and positions in the cabinet of Alexandru Vaida-Voevod. However, the following period was to prove a highly problematic one for the country at large, marked by violent incidents and a succession of decreed states of siege. The first truly representative Parliament was split over the question of land reform, with the PŢ advocating more profound changes than the one promised in 1917. The situation led to the dissolving of the Parliament and the end of the Vaida-Voevod cabinet in March-April 1920.