National Liberal Party

(Partidul National-Liberal), a Rumanian political party founded in 1875 out of various bourgeois-liberal groups. The National Liberal Party represented the commercial and industrial bourgeoisie and some of the landholding nobility and advocated protectionist trade policies. In the 20th century the party came to express the aspirations of the major financial and banking interests in Rumania.

The National Liberal Party concealed its reactionary course in domestic politics and its concessions to foreign capital with the demagogic slogan of economic reorganization “on our own strength.” The National Liberals held power for prolonged periods from 1876 to 1937 and frequently joined coalition governments. Leadership was in hands of the Brátianu family, except when the party was headed by D. Sturdza (1892–1909) and I. Duca (1930–33).

After the mid-1920’s the National Liberal Party went into decline, because of both its policy of cruel repression against the labor and democratic movement and the growing strength of the National Peasant Party. Some leaders of the National Liberal Party supported Antonescu’s fascist regime. On the eve of Rumania’s liberation from fascism, the leadership of the party was forced to agree to formal participation in the National Democratic Bloc of June 1944. After its defeat in the National Assembly elections in November 1946, the National Liberal Party was no longer a political force.