The –BrăNational Liberal Party–Brătianu (, PNL; also known as Georgiști - "Georgists", from the name of their leader, Gheorghe I. Brătianu) was a right-wing political party in Romania, formed as a splinter group from the main liberal faction, the national liberals. For its symbol, PNL-Brătianu chose three vertical bars, placed at equal distance from each other. The Georgists' official voice was Mișcarea, a journal that supported an eponymous publishing house; notably, Mișcarea published art chronicles contributed by the writer Tudor Arghezi.
The National Liberal Party–Brătianu was active between June 15, 1930 and January 10, 1938. Notable members of the group, other than its founder Brătianu, included the historians Ștefan Ciobanu, Constantin C. Giurescu, Scarlat Lambrino, Constantin S. Nicolăescu-Plopşor, Petre P. Panaitescu, Victor Papacostea, and Aurelian Sacerdoţeanu, the geographer Simion Mehedinți, the novelist Mihail Sadoveanu, the actor and poet Mihail Codreanu, the linguist Alexandru Rosetti, the jurist Paul Negulescu, the Romanian Army general Artur Văitoianu, and the lawyer Mihai Antonescu; it was primarily intellectual in appeal, and was especially involved in recruiting members of social and cultural elites, whom it placed at the top of its political hierarchy.
Unlike the main PNL's program of protectionism and selective interventionism, Gheorghe I. Brătianu's party advocated economic liberalism. It fused these ideals with nationalist demands, including, in reference to belonging to the many businesses owned by ethnic minority businessmen, the Romanianization of industry. However, as the Great Depression began to affect Romania, it recommended a government monopoly over the financial market; Its nationalist discourse was itself tempered from inside the group: while welcoming minorities inside its structures, it condemned the far right and anti-Semitic doctrines (including, notably, the Jewish quota proposed by Romanian Front and the National Christian Party).
History
Emergence
The clash between Gheorghe I. Brătianu and the main party occurred in 1930, as, in the period following the death of Ion I. C. Brătianu and at the start of Vintilă Brătianu's leadership, the party had lost power to the most important opposition group—the National Peasants' Party (PNŢ)—being crushed in the elections of 1928 (when it obtained only 6.5% of the vote). The PNL had become factionalized over issues related to policy, with the most radical of the new currents being Jean Th. Florescu's Free Man Grouping (after openly attacking Vintilă Brătianu, the latter split in 1931 to create the Liberal Democratic Party).
In Gheorghe I. Brătianu's case, the cause for conflict was his uncle Vintilă's decision to stand by his commitment to the rule of King Mihai I and the Regency (formed around Prince Nicholas of Romania), at the moment when the PNȚ Premier Gheorghe Mironescu had ensured the unexpected return of Carol II (who replaced his son on the throne during the month of June); Gheorghe I. Brătianu, who was head of the Iași County section of the PNL, voiced his full support for the new monarch, and, despite his energetic protests, was soon after excluded from the party. Nevertheless, Vintilă Brătianu and Carol normalized their relations in July, just a six months before the former's unexpected death. The main PNL was subsequently led by Ion G. Duca, who was assisted by the future leader of the so-called "young liberals" (supporting both free trade and an authoritarian rule over the country around the king's person), Gheorghe Tătărescu.
Pro-German stance
In 1933, as Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany, Gheorghe I. Brătianu publicly declared his admiration for him—this partial assimilation of fascism was a discourse also present with several other intellectuals (the historian Nicolae Iorga and the poet Octavian Goga). Duca's premiership, begun in November of the same year, saw an exodus of Georgists back to the PNL, after a failed attempt to have the party itself reunite with the latter. At around the same time, PNL-Brătianu began moving away from supporting the king, as its leader refused to compromise with the camarilla forming around Carol. Gheorghe I. Brătianu turned down multiple offers to become premier, at a time when Carol sought new solutions to combat the rise in popularity of the fascist Iron Guard.