Free and Independent Faction

Free and Independent Faction Fracțiunea Liberă și Independentă (Fracționiștii)
Personification of the Faction as a headless body (Ghimpele, February 1868)
Leader	Nicolae Ionescu (first) Dimitrie Tacu (last)
Founder	Simion Bărnuțiu
Founded	ca. 1864
Dissolved	ca. 1884
Merged into	National Liberal Party Conservative Party
Headquarters	Iași
Newspaper	Tribuna Română (1866) Dreptatea (1867–1870) D̦iorile (ca. 1868) Uniunea Liberală (ca. 1871–1873) Gazeta de Bacău (ca. 1871) Mișcarea Națională (ca. 1880)
Ideology	Ethnic nationalism (Romanian) National liberalism (Romanian) Republicanism Federalism Communalism Nativism Economic antisemitism Anti-Germanism
Political position	Center-left to far-left
Politics of Romania Political parties Elections

The Free and Independent Faction or Free and Independent Fraction (Romanian: Fracțiunea Liberă și Independentă, sometimes Fracțiunea Liberală și Independentă, "Independent Liberal Faction", commonly Fracționiștii, "The F(r)actionalists") was a nationalist and national-liberal party in Romania, regionally centered on Western Moldavia. Originally informal, and defined by its adversaries, the Faction mainly comprised pupils and followers of the philosopher Simion Bărnuțiu. During most of its existence, it had as its recognized leader the academic and polemicist Nicolae Ionescu.

Consolidated during the election of Carol I as Domnitor, the Faction opposed his rule, favoring either an elective monarchy with a native prince or a republican system. Factionalist nativism bordered on violent xenophobia, endorsing economic antisemitism and anti-Germanism. The party also stood for democratization, including radical land reform and a reshaping of the census suffrage, while its regional ethos resulted in support for federalism, then communalism. Such stances created tension between the Factionalists and most other groups on the left-liberal fringe, making the Faction an uneasy partner in the "Red" government alliances of the 1860s and '70s. They were also opposed in Moldavia by the conservative club Junimea, with whom the Faction had a consuming rivalry, and by moderate liberals such as Mihail Kogălniceanu.