National Christian Party

The National Christian Party was a far-right authoritarian and strongly antisemitic political party in Romania active between 1935 and 1938. It was formed by a merger of Octavian Goga's National Agrarian Party and A. C. Cuza's National-Christian Defense League (LANC); a prominent member of the party was the philosopher Nichifor Crainic. Goga was chosen in December 1937 by King Carol II to form a government which included Cuza. The government lasted for only 44 days and was followed by a royal dictatorship by Carol. History Founded in 1935, and led by Goga, it never received more than about 10% of the vote, but was chosen in December 1937 by King Carol II to form a government. The party stated that it would rule by the existing constitution but held longer term ambitions at reform, wanting to introduce a smaller parliament and a new corporatist upper chamber. The party was especially noted for its anti-Semitism and Alexander Easterman writes of the party's brief time in office, "Goga proclaimed his policy, openly and unashamed, as designed to rid Roumania of the Jews. Indeed, he had no other policy to offer; his government was quite simply anti-Semitic and nothing else". In order to underline its anti-Semitic credentials the party adopted the swastika as its emblem, whilst retaining the blue shirt of the LANC as its political uniform. Easterman hypothesizes that Carol had placed this party in power "to give his people a taste of Fascism", hoping vainly that an ensuing reaction against such policies would sweep away not only the relatively weak National Christians but also the far stronger Iron Guard. The party retained close links to the paramilitary Lăncieri, which had previously been close to LANC. Goga's government was formed on 29 December 1937, and began its term by repudiating Romania's obligations under the 1919 Treaty of Paris, also known as the Minorities Treaty, imposed upon it at the 1919 Paris Peace Conference. The government then introduced a series of anti-semitic laws. On 21 January 1938, it promulgated a decree aimed at reviewing criteria for citizenship (after it cast allegations that previous cabinets had allowed Ukrainian Jews to obtain it illegally). It required all Jews who had received citizenship in 1918-1919 to reapply for it, and set an impossibly high bar for documentary proof of such citizenship, while providing only 20 days in which this could be achieved.