Opposition To Communism
Subsequently, Maniu was a prominent adversary of Soviet influence and advocate of the Western Allies, while his party became the predilect target of PCR hostility. After events such as the street fighting between its supporters and Communists in February 1945, and the loss of the general election of November 1946 through widespread electoral fraud carried out by the pro-communist Petru Groza government, the PNŢ was sidelined, with the PCR ensuring the collaboration of several former party members, such as Nicolae L. Lupu and Anton Alexandrescu.
In a telegram to the State Department, the US representative in Romania, Burton Berry, wrote:
"The Department well knows that Maniu has stood out boldly as a champion of pro-Allied action and sentiment in Rumania even during the dark days of the Antonescu dictatorship. He has an enormous political following in the country and I believe the respect in which all Rumanians hold him eclipses that held for any other Rumanian. Because of what he has been and what he is it seems important that he be preserved from slipping into sharing the general conviction that the dissolution of the Rumanian state is now in progress."
The party was outlawed in July 1947. That month, Ion Mihalache was alleged to have attempted to flee the country in an airplane which landed at Tămădău, in order to establish a government in exile (see Tămădău Affair). This was judged as treasonable, and both Maniu and Mihalache faced a kangaroo court that sentenced them to life imprisonment in a hard labour prison; given their advanced age, this amounted to a death sentence. The show trial, signaling the suppression of opposition groups, was a significant step towards the establishment of a communist regime in Romania.
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