Reluctant Allies? Iuliu Maniu and Corneliu Zelea Codreanu against King Carol II of Romania

Iuliu Maniu is today regarded as the principle upholder of democratic and constitutional propriety in interwar Romania. Nevertheless, in 1937 he entered into an electoral nonaggression pact with Corneliu Zelea Codreanu, leader of the anti-democratic and fascist Romanian legionary movement, to prevent the incumbent government falsifying the elections of December 1937. Thus far, the secondary literature on the history of interwar Romania has shed little light on Maniu's motives in signing the pact with Codreanu or on the nature and extent of Maniu's relations with the legionary movement in the 1930s. This article, which draws on previously unutilized Romanian archival sources, will examine the links between Maniu and the movement and argue that these extended well beyond the signing of the pact in 1937. It will conclude that Maniu and Codreanu were far from being 'reluctant allies' in their fight against government corruption and King Carol of Romania.