Late 1920s Politics
The People's Party involved itself in solving the dynastic crisis after Ferdinand's death in July 1927, again approaching Carol to replace the child-king Michael and Prince Nicholas' regency. In November 1927, Averescu took the stand in the trial of his supporter Mihail Manoilescu, who was arrested after having incited pro-Carol sentiment; in his testimony, he backed the notion that, despite his initial anger, Ferdinand had ultimately planned to have Carol return to the throne.
His grouping lost much of its supporters to the newly-formed National Peasants' Party, and scored under 2% in the 1927 elections. Around 1930, Averescu began opposing the universal suffrage he had endorsed earlier, and issued an appeal to the intellectuals in order to have it discarded from legislation on the basis that it was easily influenced by the parties in power. He and his supporter, the pro-authoritarian poet Octavian Goga, received criticism from the left-wing Poporanist journal Viaţa Românească, who claimed that Averescu had in fact provoked and encouraged widespread electoral irregularities during his time in office.
In November 1930, he filed a complaint against the poet and journalist Bazil Gruia, claiming that the latter had libeled him by publishing, in January, an article in Chemarea which began by questioning the People's Party claim that Averescu was "the only honest comrade of the Romanian peasant" and contrasted it with the general's activities during the 1907 Revolt. The trial was held in Cluj, and Gruia was represented in court by Radu R. Rosetti. On December 1, he was found guilty and sentenced to 15 days in a correctional facility with reprieve, and to a fine of 3,000 lei (soon after, Gruia benefited from a pardon).
Averescu was promoted to Marshal of Romania in the same year, during the time when Carol returned to rule as King — the appointment was attributed by Time to his political support for the latter's return. According to the same source, by the end of 1930, Averescu was again at the center of Romanian politics, owing to Carol's favor, to the deaths of Ion I. C. and Vintilă Brătianu, and to the unexpected support he gained from the PNL dissident Gheorghe I. Brătianu.
Read more about this topic: Alexandru Averescu
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