National Socialist Party (Romania)
National Socialist Party of Romania (National-Socialist, Fascist and Christian Steel Shield) Partidul Național-Socialist din România (Pavăza de Oțel Național-Socialistă, Fascistă și Creștină) | |
|---|---|
 | |
| President | |
| Founded | March 25, 1932 |
| Dissolved | July 5, 1934 |
| Succeeded by | Nationalist Soldiers' Front German People's Party |
| Newspaper | Crez Nou |
| Paramilitary wing | Pavăza de Oțel |
| Regional wings | National Socialist Self-Help Movement of the Germans in Romania (NSDR) National Movement for Renewal of the Germans of Romania (NEDR) |
| Ideology | Majority: • Nazism • Monarchism • Corporatism • Clerical fascism Minority: • German community interests • Christian socialism • Right-wing socialism |
| Political position | Far-right |
| National affiliation | National-Christian Defense League (1932, 1933) |
| Colours | Black, White, Red |
| Slogan | România Românilor ("Romania for the Romanians") |
| Party flag | |
 | |
The National Socialist Party (formally Nationalist-Socialist Party of Romania; Romanian: Partidul Național-Socialist din România, PNSR)[1] or Steel Shield (Pavăza de Oțel) was a mimetic Nazi political party, active in Romania during the early 1930s. It was led by Colonel , the brother of Gheorghe Tătărescu (twice Prime Minister of Romania during that interval), and existed around the newspaper Crez Nou. One of several far-right factions competing unsuccessfully against the Iron Guard for support, the group made little headway, and existed at times as a satellite of the National-Christian Defense League.
The PNSR proposed a program of corporatism and statism, promising a basic income, full employment, and limits on capitalist profits. It was anticommunist generally, and in particular anti-Soviet, circulating the theory of Jewish Bolshevism while describing its own program as the alternative, "positive", socialism. The party also claimed for itself the banner of Christianity, which it associated with calls for social reorganization and the expulsion or segregation of Romanian Jews. Its Germanophilia and antisemitism were supplemented by shows of support for the policies of King Carol II.
The PNSR's ideological stance, exotic in its Romanian context, found favor in Nazi Germany, notably from Alfred Rosenberg. Overall, the PNSR failed in its bid to establish a pan-fascist alliance in Romania, and, despite being nativist, functioned as a magnet for Transylvanian Saxons, Bessarabia Germans, and Russian émigrés. Tătărescu was received officially by his German patrons, who also provided the PNSR with funds, but eventually dropped by them for his unpopularity and alleged corruption. In late 1933, under the antifascist Prime Minister Ion G. Duca, the party was repressed.
Tătărescu exercised some influence over his brother's government in 1934, helping to steer the country away from its traditional alliances, but failed in his attempt to obtain arms deals for Germany. Disavowed by both its Nazi backers and Gheorghe Tătărescu, the party moderated its stances, then disappeared from the political scene in July 1934. Later that decade, the Colonel was involved with the Nationalist Soldiers' Front, which borrowed the PNSR's symbols. The PNSR Saxon chapter, under , reemerged as the German People's Party in 1935.
History[]
Creation[]
Tătărescu, a retired colonel of the Romanian Air Force, former military attache to Berlin,[2] and author of patriotic plays, had made his start in politics with the left-wing Peasants' Party.[3] He first explored the idea of creating a Romanian version of the German Nazi Party (NSDAP) during early 1932, but his interest in fascism dated back to at least 1928.[4] In 1929, he was a high-ranking member of the "League of National Defense" (Liga Apărarea Națională),[5] afterward serving as its president.[3] The Colonel also became an affiliate of the mainstream National Liberal Party (PNL), which was also where his brother Gheorghe made his political career. He left that party in June 1930, to join the right-wing-dissident Georgist Liberals, who supported the political program of Romanian King Carol II. In his speeches of the period, the Colonel criticized the PNL for having failed to recognize Carol's legitimacy, and supported the Georgist promise of a "clampdown on anarchy".[6] He took part in the party's Ploiești congress,[7] and became one of the leaders of the Georgist section in Putna County.[8] Serving in the Senate after the June 1931 election, he issued calls against the price gouging of bread.[9]
Whilst the National-Christian Defense League (LANC) had developed a direct relationship with Nazi agents, the formation of a specific Nazi party in Romania soon followed.[10] This was consecrated on March 25, 1932, with the publication of leaflet called "Program of the Romanian National-Socialists"—unsigned, but attributed to Col. Tătărescu. It urged for modifying the 1923 Constitution to enshrine "the absolute power of the Romanian people, namely those of Romanian blood".[11] Demanding Jewish quotas and nationalization, it allowed non-Romanian Christians their civil rights, except for holding political office, and proposed corporatism instead of the parliamentary regime.[12] The leaflet was headlined by the Nazi flag, defaced with the slogan România Românilor ("Romania for the Romanians").[11]
The PNSR emerged around Tătărescu's weekly, Crez Nou ("New Credo"), which closely emulated German political newspapers[13] and only ran 500 copies per issue.[14] It shared title with a propaganda book, in which Tătărescu outlined his Nazi plan for Romania.[3] In addition to being Nazi, Tătărescu's group was monarchist, expressing strong support for Carol II. As noted by historian Francisco Veiga, this was the "only concession to Romanianness" of an otherwise mimetic party, reflected in its choice of a party logo: an eagle adapted from Nazi symbolism, clutching the swastika, but donning the Steel Crown of Romania.[13]
Tătărescu's party was only a minor contestant in the July 1932 election. Initially forming a cartel with the LANC and running under its swastika logo,[15] the PNSR split during the campaign and ran on its own lists, used a horizontal tetragram icon (