The Nation’s Party under the dictatorship of King Carol II
Keywords:
King Carol II, Romania, anti-Semitism, Jews, militarization, ideology, political religion, fascism, The Nation’s PartyAbstract
The article aims to answer why anti-Semitism is maintained even today, on social media. The following article aims to analyze the anti-Semitic decree-laws during the royal dictatorship of the Romanian King Carol the 2nd, in particular the moment when the National Renaissance Front becomes the Nation’s Party, a unique and totalitarian organization in Romania. Using the concept of a unique party, the study will show the anti-Semitic decree-laws that resulted in the exclusion of Jews from Romanian political, economic, and social life. Citizenship was dependent on ethnicity, the principle of numerus clausus was enforced, and the anti-Semitic legislation was enforced as decree-laws. The ideology of the Nation’s Party differed from that of the National Renaissance Party in that it focused primarily on nationalist, racist, and anti-Semitic theses and was strongly influenced by Italian fascist rituals and German Nazism. Since the position of state secretary was linked to that of party member, Jews were permanently excluded from all state institutions, regardless of their role in them. The militarization of the Party stemmed from the fact that superior power within the unique organization was exercised by the General Secretary, who was subordinate to the Party’s Chief of Staff. Finally, when King Carol II abdicated, the Nation’s Party also disappeared, but it remained as the first unique and totalitarian organization in the Romanian political history.