Romanian Front
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Romanian Front
Frontul Românesc |
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|---|---|
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| President | Alexandru Vaida-Voevod |
| Founded | March 12, 1935 |
| Dissolved | 1938 |
| Split from | National Peasants' Party |
| Succeeded by | National Renaissance Front |
| Newspaper | Gazeta de Transilvania |
| Ideology |
Fascism Economic antisemitism Monarchism |
| Political position | Far-right |
| Colours | Black |
The Romanian Front (Romanian: Frontul Românesc, FR) was a moderate fascist party created in Romania in 1935. Led by former Prime Minister Alexandru Vaida-Voevod, it originated as a right-wing splinter group from the mainstream National Peasants' Party (PNȚ). It had a generally xenophobic program of positive discrimination, being implicitly (and eventually explicitly) antisemitic. The FR was subsumed to the policies of King Carol II, maneuvering between the mainstream National Liberals, the PNȚ's left-wing, and the more radically fascist Iron Guard. Vaida tried to compete with the former two and appease the latter, assuming fascist trappings such as the black-shirted uniform.
Albeit invested with the king's trust and counting experienced politicians among its cadres, the FR was always a minor force in Romanian politics, and depended on the more powerful National Christian Party, with which it formed a political alliance in 1935. Its hostility toward the National Liberal governments gave way to cooperation after the latter also embraced ethnic discrimination, and eventually resulted in a cartel, formed by the two parties during the 1937 election. This controversial move bled the FR of members and supporters, leaving it to be absorbed into the single-party National Renaissance Front in 1938.
The Front had its roots in the second and third governments of Vaida-Voevod (1932 and 1933), which were characterized by growing levels of antisemitism and discussions regarding the possibility of barring Jews from a number of public posts (Jewish quotas). As an ideologue, Vaida-Voevod found inspiration in the work of economic antisemites and authoritarians such as Karl Lueger and Aurel Popovici. In the late 1920s, his views were shaped by eugenics and biopolitics, leading him to demand the state-managed preservation of a pure peasant stock, against "biological competition".
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