- Gheorghe Mironescu
Infobox_Prime Minister
name =Gheorghe Mironescu
nationality =Romania n
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order =Prime Minister of Romania
term_start =June 8 ,1930 –June 13 ,1930 October 10 ,1930
term_end =April 9 ,1931
vicepresident =
deputy =
predecessor =Iuliu Maniu Iuliu Maniu
successor =Iuliu Maniu Nicolae Iorga
order2 =
term_start2 =
term_end2 =
predecessor2 =
successor2 =
birth_date =birth date|1874|1|29|mf=y
birth_place =Vaslui ,Romania
death_date =1949
death_place =Bucharest ,Romania
constituency =
party =National Peasants' Party
spouse =
profession =
religion =Romanian Orthodox
footnotes =|Gheorghe G. Mironescu, commonly known as G. G. Mironescu (
January 29 ,1874 —1949), was aRomania n politician, member of theNational Peasants' Party (PNŢ), who served as a Prime Minister of Romania for two terms.Biography
Born in
Vaslui , Mironescu joined the PNŢ and became one of most its recognizable leaders, the main figure of a pro-authoritarian faction bitterly opposed toleft-wing groups such as those ofNicolae L. Lupu ,Petre Andrei ,Mihai Ralea , andArmand Călinescu . [Hitchins, p.379; Ornea, p.295] After 1928, he served as Foreign Minister inIuliu Maniu 's first cabinet.In 1930,
Carol II of Romania returned to Romania (with a fake passport). On the morning ofJune 7 1930 , the Government convened Parliament in order to cancel the act ofJanuary 4 ,1926 , through which Carol had renounced the throne. [Hitchins, p.409-410] Carol was proclaimed the newKing of Romania , replacing his own son Michael. Maniu resigned, and a new PNŢ government was formed, under the leadership of Gheorghe Mironescu, restoring Carol II to the throne onJune 8 ,1930 . The cabinet was welcomed byregent Nicholas with the words:"You are called on to fulfill King Ferdinand's dream, and you are the most qualified to do it." [Prince Nicholas, in Scurtu]
The PNŢ subsequently repealed the 1926 laws preventing Carol from inheriting the Crown, and faced a constitutional crisis after
Constantin Sărăţeanu and PatriarchMiron Cristea resigned from the regency in protest. [Scurtu] The impass was quickly prevented, as the two chambers of parliament passed legislation awarding Carol the crown and awarding Michael the honorary dignity of "Grand Voivode ofAlba Iulia ". [Scurtu] That same evening, Mironescu resigned in order for the king to name a new government.The king's project for a broad-coalition government was not accomplished: Carol offered the appointment to Maniu (who cited health reasons in his refusal, but was in fact disappointed by Carol's ongoing scandalous relationship with
Magda Lupescu ) [Veiga, p.129] and then to GeneralConstantin Prezan (who was rejected by the National Liberal Party). Eventually, the king renounced the project, recognized the mandate of Maniu as majority leader, and conceded to a regular cabinet. [Scurtu] Mironescu was Foreign Minister in the first two Maniu cabinets, and remained in office in the ministry for the duration of his premiership.His second time in office, with
Ion Mihalache as Minister of Internal Affairs and Carol's supporterMihail Manoilescu as Minister of the Economy, was marked by the outlawing of thefar right movement known as theIron Guard and the arrest of its leaderCorneliu Zelea Codreanu (who was later tried and acquitted). [Ornea, p.295] Nevertheless, Mironescu was to contribute to the appeal offascism : his was the first in a series of governments that, faced with theGreat Depression , reduced salaries for state employees, who soon began supporting the revolutionary solutions advanced by Codreanu. [Veiga, p.156-157] The cabinet was ultimately ousted by the king himself, who nominated an attempted technocracy underNicolae Iorga (aiming to provide a mask for Carol's "camarilla"). [Veiga, p.130]In early 1943, during
World War II , Mironescu was given a mandate to approach the leadership ofMiklós Horthy 'sHungary , in an attempt by Romania'sIon Antonescu to have both countries achieve a new territorial settlement and a common withdrawal from theAxis Powers ("see alsoRomania during World War II "); he began talks withMiklós Bánffy 's delegation inBucharest (June 9), but these negotiations ended when the two sides could not agree on a future status forNorthern Transylvania , a region held by Hungary at the time. [Hitchins, p.480]He died in Bucharest in 1949.
Notes
References
*
Keith Hitchins , "România, 1866-1947", Humanitas, Bucharest, 1998 (translation of the English-language edition "Rumania, 1866-1947", Oxford University Press, USA, 1994)
*Z. Ornea , "Anii treizeci. Extrema dreaptă românească", Ed. Fundaţiei Culturale Române, Bucharest, 1995
*Francisco Veiga, "Istoria Gărzii de Fier, 1919-1941: Mistica ultranaţionalismului", Humanitas, Bucharest, 1993
* [http://www.itcnet.ro/history/archive/mi2000/current5/mi69.htm Ioan Scurtu, "Regele a dorit guvern de concentrare"] , in "Magazin Istoric"
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