19 - The Repercussions of the International Political Crisis

Summary

The repercussions of the international economic crisis, which culminated in the crash of the New York stock exchange, could be contained by neither the National Liberal Party nor the National Peasants’ Party. Therefore, King Carol II opted for a government coalition led by Iorga, which also could not cope with the crisis, being unable to pay wages for months. The convergence of debt, which went up tremendously because of deflation, brought some relief but also led to a credit crisis. Wages went down and unemployment could not be combated, especially among intellectuals. The circle around the king and Mrs. Lupescu were in defiance of public morals. The antipathy that the poor felt toward the king channeled them toward the Iron Guard, which engaged in the fiercest battle against the king and his circles. The United States, Britain, and France were also struggling with deflation and unemployment. Opposing them was Hitler, who left the League of Nations and proceeded to engage in massive rearmament, which got rid of unemployment, even if wages were very low. In this way he boosted his prestige not only domestically but also abroad, while France and Britain ceased their struggle against him and started flirting with him, tolerating his provocations, which started with the occupation of Austria and dismemberment of Czechoslovakia. America itself spoke of the advantages of continuity in political activity, and greater and greater concentration of power in the hands of the new dictatorships, and even started to imitate it. President Roosevelt's third and fourth terms were a result of this imitation. Faced with the arrogance of the dictatorships on one side and the defeatist policies of Britain, France, and even America on the other, Codreanu, openly supported by Hitler, gained in popularity. Worried by his pro-Axis statements, France asked King Carol II, through Titulescu, to dismantle the Iron Guard. Prime Minister Duca did not agree with this measure, because the legionnaire movement was not yet a party of the masses, so it had to be combated by democratic means, not by putting it outside the law, where it could gain popularity.