Nicolae Fleva
Encyclopedia
Nicolae Fleva was a Wallachia
n-born Romania
n politician, political journalist and lawyer. Known especially for his involvement in political incidents, and for a stated patriotism
bordering on demagogy
, he tested all political formulas that Romania's two-party system
would allow. His activity in the public sphere brought a decades-long presence in the Assembly of Deputies
and a mandate as Mayor
of Bucharest
between 1884 and 1886.
After beginnings with the National Liberal Party
, which he helped establish and represented in court, Fleva came to oppose its monopoly on power. He experimented with creating a third party, negotiated common platforms for the various opposition forces, including the Conservatives and the Junimea
society, during contiguous National Liberal administrations. Fleva was notoriously involved in the major scandals of the 1880s, when his ridicule of National Liberal power generated street battles and sparked two separate shooting incidents. At the time, "Flevist" groups were seen as the leading voice of middle class
discontentment, and formed one of several currents pushing for the adoption of universal male suffrage.
Fleva returned into the National Liberal camp when he was refused a leading role in Conservative cabinets, and, in 1895–1896, was the Internal Affairs Minister. He clashed with the party over a number of issues, returned into opposition, and was later (1899–1900) the Conservative Minister of Agriculture
. Involved as both accused and accuser in some corruption scandals of the early 20th century, he was sent Ambassador to Italy, and ended his career with a stint in the Conservative-Democratic Party. During World War I
, Fleva brought suspicion on himself as a supporter, and possible agent of influence
, of the Central Powers
.
to a family of low-ranking boyar
s. He was a descendant of Greek
settlers, who probably arrived to the Buzău
region during the Phanariote
era. He had a sister, Cleopatra (married Tabacopol), whose daughter Alexandrina was married to Ion Istrati, Adjutant
to the King of Romania
between 1892 and 1897.
In youth, Nicolae Fleva attended the Saint Sava College
, Bucharest, and graduated in Law at the University of Naples
(1867). Upon his return to Romania, Fleva spent a period tending to his lands in Putna County
, pursuing interests in agriculture and horse breeding
: he judged in ploughing contests at local fairs, and received a silver medal for his mare Diditia. Fleva brought professional harness racing
to Romania, and received honorable mention for his own contribution to that sport.
In addition to building a legal career, and becoming one of the most successful legal professionals of the 1870s, Fleva created a trademark and highly unconventional political style. Described by contemporaries as possessing a warm and engaging voice, he relied on patriotic-themed oratory, and reportedly spoke for four hours on end without accepting interruptions. He notoriously organized electoral National Liberal rallies in front of patriotic landmarks, such as the Michael the Brave Monument in University Square
. With time, Fleva became known to his supporters as Tribunul, "the Tribune
", or variations of that nickname. Writing in 2011, journalist Maria Apostol called him "one of the most controversial political figures in the history of Romania." Fleva himself did not preoccupy himself with his colleagues' resentment of his conduct, and publicized as his motto the phrase: "I'd rather have enemies who respect me than friends who despise me."
One of the first causes involving Fleva, as a young figure in the liberal-republican opposition
, was the dispute between liberals and Romania's monarch, Domnitor
Carol of Hohenzollern
. The "Tribune" was first elected to the Assembly in the 1870 suffrage, representing the 4th (lowest) Electoral Collage in Putna County. He stood out in that legislature with claims that the election for town and city councils were being rigged by the political establishment, and congratulated those who, like Nicolae Moret Blaremberg, denounced the politics of Prime Minister
M. C. Epureanu
.
The period saw him joining a defense team for soldiers and civilians prosecuted by the state for their roles in the "Republic of Ploieşti
" conspiracy—all of them, including liberal leaders Ion Brătianu
, C. A. Rosetti
, Eugeniu Carada and Anton I. Arion
, were acquitted. Fleva, whose successful defense tactic had was contending that Epureanu's men had incited and mislead Romanian republicans, publicized his speeches in court as the 1871 booklet Procesul lui 8 august. Apărarea făcută celor 41 acusaţi ("The Trial of August 8. The Defense of the 41 Accused"). This was to be the first of several confrontations between Fleva and Carol, who even consider abdicating the throne after the court justified its verdict.
During 1875, Fleva also participated in the heated debate about regulating wheat trade between Romania and the Russian Empire
. Against the position held by Prime Minister Lascăr Catargiu
, and against voices from his own faction, Fleva suggested that Russia's demand for most favored nation status was acceptable. The parallel signing of a commercial agreement between Romania and Austria-Hungary
, her protectionist neighbor to the northwest, angered the anti-Austrian liberals, to the point where a liberal conspiracy began to emerge.
of Catargiu and other political leaders closest to Carol. By then the Bucharest-based liberal movement expanded its basis, reaching out to various undecided liberal clubs. It was soon joined by the main anti-Catargiu factions: a moderate current spearheaded by Ion Ghica
and Mihail Kogălniceanu
; Nicolae Ionescu
and his "Fractionists" from the eastern Romanian province of Moldavia
; and a group of former conservatives such as Epureanu. The first result of their effort was a political gazette, Alegătorul Liber ("The Enfranchised Voter"). Fleva was part of the Editorial Committee, which included almost all of the liberal leadership (excluding C. A. Rosetti), and employed the young satirical journalist Ion Luca Caragiale
as copy editor.
Carried by Fleva's oratory and by exposes in Alegătorul Liber, the liberal campaigners entered the 1875 electoral race with confidence. The moment degenerated in national confusion, after supporters of the two sides organized brawl and a pro-Catargiu electoral agent was killed in public. Citing concerns that Fleva was inciting Bucharest's populace, the Prime Minister ordered his arrest, and Fleva was detained in Văcăreşti prison; the young politician was released in short time. Welcomed back by "a delirious crowd", he also took part in successfully defending the anti-conservative poet Alexandru Macedonski
, who faced similar accusations.
At this point in time, the factions found support from Stephen "Mazar Paşa" Lakeman
, who, as a loyal subject of the British Kingdom
, may have intended to steer Romania away from Austria-Hungary. Fleva was personally involved in the negotiations presided upon by Lakeman, which resulted in the formation of a single National Liberal Party. His name features among those of 25 members of the party's "Steering Committee", on a list published by Rosetti's Românul in June 1875.
By March 1876, Catargiu fell out of favor with Carol, who reportedly decided that, as candidate for the premiership, Brătianu was "reasonable and humble". This followed a winter of National Liberal agitation, with renewed plans for a Romanian Republic, and then an understanding between the two sides, brokered by Romanian Police
chief Ion Bălăceanu
. Nicolae Fleva returned as National Liberal deputy in the early elections of 1876, and was reconfirmed in the 1879 suffrage. The new Premier, Ion Brătianu, promoted Fleva to a position of influence in the party: with Eugeniu Stătescu
and Mihail Pherekyde
, Fleva controlled the grassroots campaign against non-liberals. He was at the time collecting support for a motion to sue Catargiu for damages, years after Catargiu had quelled the riots in Bucharest. Despite being engaged at the core of liberal politics, Fleva defended former Education Minister Titu Maiorescu
, founder of the conservative club Junimea
. Maiorescu was himself becoming a rival of Catargiu, and stood for a "Young Conservative" reform movement. Fleva was part of a special commission who investigated Maiorescu' malfeasance in office, following allegations made by the National Liberal Andrei Vizanti, and his vote helped clear Maiorescu of all charges.
. On May 9, 1877, he inquired Foreign Minister Kogălniceanu about the Russian attack on the Ottoman Empire
; Kogălniceanu confirmed that Romania considered itself independent from her Ottoman sovereign. Although taken by some to mean that Romania was free as of May 9, this carefully staged discussion was a preamble to the actual declaration of May 10, when Carol was to be confirmed as the first Domnitor of an independent Romania. Having also presented himself in elections for the Bucharest Communal Council, Fleva became one of three assistants to Mayor C. A. Rosetti, whose mandate coincided with the first year of Romania's war.
Around 1880, when the anti-liberal pole was organizing itself into the Conservative Party, Fleva was being identified by his adversaries as a main exponent of a new National Liberal ideology and morality. Writing for Timpul
newspaper, the national conservative
poet and essayist Mihai Eminescu
stirred passions with his radical critique of this emerging group, nominating Fleva alongside Pherekyde and others as "foreign" and "superimposed" enemies of national development. In one of his lampoons, published in August 1882, Eminescu uses analogy to suggest that Pherekyde's shadow cabinet
was an anti-national abomination: "Dear people! What would you say if the Chancellor of Germany
were named Pherekydes, if its ministers were named Carada, Fleva and Chiriţopol [...], if in that somewhere where all people have names like Meyer and Müller, all of its governing class were foreign? [...] You'd say: a destitute people that, driven to work like oxen to feed foreigners, foreigners and yet more foreigners."
As scholar Marius Turda notes, the objections were partly justified, since the new generation brought with it less credibility and more corruption. Fleva may even have been partly responsible for sacking Eminescu from the office of librarian, back when the National Liberals first began evaluating the loyalties of public servants. However, Eminescu's expanding xenophobia
caused disquiet in Conservative circles, since many Conservative leaders were of noted Greek or other non-Romanian origin.
Fleva's position as deputy was reconfirmed in the 1883 national elections, and again in the 1884 vote. These were the first-ever elections to be carried under a new electoral law, pushed by the core group of National Liberal, and extending representation and disestablishing the 4th Electoral College. By then, the "Tribune" had his fief in Bucharest, and his appeal there propelled him to the office of Mayor during the local election of 1884. However, he also benefited from Eugeniu Stătescu's withdrawal from the National Liberal caucus, which propelled Fleva to head of the electoral list. Fleva did not replace an active Mayor, but rather took his seat from an interim bureau, presided upon by M. Török.
Fleva's own team of Councilors included 6 public figures, among them civil engineer Grigore Cerchez and future Mayor Ion Dobrovici (both of whom survived recall, serving in Fleva's second advisory team). The team's focus was on the sanitation
of Dâmboviţa River
, for which purpose Mayor Fleva contracted English
engineer William Lindley
. Upon inspection, Lindley advised against using Dâmboviţa as a water supply
, even as filters had been installed, and the project began to redirect water from further upstream.
", the Prime Minster was for a while unchallenged in his party, having marginalized his most powerful competitor C. A. Rosetti. Ion Brătianu even faced opposition from his brother, Dimitrie Brătianu
, who took on Rosetti's campaign for universal male suffrage, but, unlike the radicals, tended to favor the over-representation of Romania's middle class
. Close to this pole, Fleva was among those jaded party militants who accused their Prime Minister of tyrannical stances, and who turned on Carol (by then King of Romania
). This time around, Carol stood accused of having created a political machine
in association with Ion Brătianu. His personal quarrel with Brătianu reached its peak when the two political figures duel
ed with pistols. Brătianu was the one to provoke Fleva, when the latter described the cabinet as a collection of "shadows"; Fleva's shot missed its target and then Brătianu's bullet hit him near the heart, but he luckily survived.
The period witnessed the birth of a new political conglomerate, called "Liberal Conservative Party": the Conservatives, alongside the dissenting "Sincere Liberals", plus the Moldavian "Fractionists". Political trouble followed, as the monarch, who now trusted Brătianu above all other politicians, refused to apply his prerogatives and rotate between the dominant factions.
With former enemy Catargiu, Fleva signed a manifesto against Carol, in which they alluded to the possibility of an anti-monarchical rebellion. In disparaging tone, the two united factions began referring to the National Liberal doctrinaires as "collectivists
". Fleva was personally involved in forging the "United Opposition" bloc—he and Dimitrie Brătianu were among the recognized leaders of this new movement. Fleva also discussed cooperation with Junimea
, the Conservative inner faction and splinter group, meeting with Junimist spokesman Alexandru Marghiloman
. With Dimitrie Brătianu and other United Opposition men, he took part in agitation against the agents of government in Galaţi
city, responding to report that the elections there where always fraudulent. In 1886, his own faction was joined by other former National Liberals, including Constantin C. Arion
and Take Ionescu
. With Ionescu and young Conservative figure Nicolae Filipescu, Fleva created short-lived political club, the "League of Resistance" (1888), but Ionescu soon after made his way into the Conservative Party.
As Mayor, Nicolae Fleva was noted for setting up Sfântul Anton Market (near Manuc's Inn) and Eforiei Bathhouse (by Cişmigiu Gardens
), and, in following with his passion for horses, for donating the Băneasa
grounds which became Bucharest's Racecourse. During his mandate, Bucharest saw the completion of 1,190 townhouses, including tens of two-, three- or four-story buildings. Some have nevertheless described these as unimportant achievements; literary historian Ioana Pârvulescu summarizes his term with the words "he did nothing", while, according to Apostol, Fleva "left no trace on how Bucharest developed". The administration started with a budget of 8,500,000 French franc
s, but the collected sum dropped to 7,660,000 by 1885, and stabilized itself at 7,807,000 in 1886. Fleva eventually presented his resignation in April 1886, citing disagreements with the City Council and the leaders of Police. He had by then drafted and proposed, unsuccessfully, a reform of the law on the attributes of Prefects
.
as instigators. Fleva was part of the defense team (with Nicolae Moret Blaremberg, Petre Grădişteanu, Alexandru Lahovary
, Alexandru Djuvara
, George D. Pallade etc.); on December 18, 1887, the judge acquitted all of the accused. Fleva, Blaremberg and Ioan Lahovary
also defended the republican George Panu in his legal battle with the king (in his newspaper Lupta, Panu had published the United Opposition pamphlet "A Dangerous Man", where Carol was the main target). They lost, and Panu was sentenced to a two-year term in jail.
The electoral year of 1888 brought an explosive situation: on March 14, when Carol returned from a visit to Berlin
, Fleva, with Catargiu, Blaremberg and various others, instigated a riot which began at Orfeu Hall, Bucharest. Under their supervision, the crowd trying to occupy the building and make it an anti-government fief found its access blocked by pro-government men (soldiers, mounted Gendarmes, police or simply National Liberal militants). A chase followed through the city center, and the rioters attempted to make their way into the (old) Royal Palace, to demand that the king dispose of Brătianu (the king watched on, but gave no reaction).
The events were viewed with astonishment by the third-parties at Junimea. Its elder Petre P. Carp
reported his horror at seeing soldiers attacking people who had done "absolutely nothing". The United Opposition protest of March 15, which accused Brătianu of carrying out a "massacre", was signed by Junimists Marghiloman and Iacob Negruzzi, although not by Carp. The same day, all opposition forces staged a March of Mourning to the Assembly Palace
, but again the road was barricaded by armed forces.
The deputies were allowed access into the hall, but the ceremony was interrupted when a rifle or pistol shot, of unknown origin, killed one of the hall's ushers. The deputies panicked before troops stormed in, and Carp was found standing near the body, engaged in a heated dispute with Sturdza. A version circulated by journalist and memoirist Constantin Bacalbaşa combats the initial police reports with claims of government conspiracy. According to Bacalbaşa, Ion Brătianu's men had hired a Sergent Silaghi to shoot Fleva from a ledge, but the nervous shooter had missed his target, and an innocent bystander took that bullet. In the end, Fleva and Filipescu were both arrested.
Fleva stood accused of inciting the riots, and even suspected of the murder: the police allegation was that a gun had been found on his person, but other reports state that none of the deputies was armed. Carp himself took the stand against government actions, denouncing a cover-up
attempt. Fleva was brought to Văcăreşti, but again his prompt release sparked popular celebrations.
In short while, a mainly Junimist cabinet headed by Theodor Rosetti
was to take over. This was Carol's own choice of Prime Minister: the king recognized the National Liberal crisis, but adamantly refused to follow the United Opposition agenda. Nicolae Fleva was subsequently approached by Carp with an offer to head Internal Affairs. Legend goes that there was a debate among them regarding the sanctity of free suffrage, which governments in power tended to ignore. Fleva reportedly accepted, on condition that the Junimists hold free elections; the latter's reply was: "No free elections! But we'll get real elections!" The pro-Conservative daily România Liberă
, whose editor Duiliu Zamfirescu
was a passionate critic of Fleva, suggested that there was an unbridgeable gap, in both doctrine and interests, between the former two sides of United Opposition: "On one hand the Junimists with the Liberal-Conservatives and the Young Conservatives, supporting the government and holding the door open for all men of decency who, through similarity in ideas, may wish to work for the actual consolidation of the state and a true betterment of Romanian society; on the other the defeated collectivists, who will put out for any liberal who will fight the government, be they Fleva, Panu, Grădişteanu and Dim[itrie] Brătianu. In order to grow back into a force, [the National Liberals] are willing to bring into the family even their most unrelenting enemies of yesterday."
or in other parts of Austria-Hungary
, many of whom were complaining about government abuse and Magyarization
policies (Transylvanian Memorandum
). Representing Romania at a peace congress
in Rome
, Fleva spoke positively about the demands of Romanian Transylvanian students, and obtained from the international representative a resolution favoring respect for national rights. He built contacts with Austria-Hungary's Romanian National Party
and the Cultural League for the Unity of All Romanians, being a special guest at their 1894 banquet in Bucharest. Also that year, Fleva donated books to the Romanians of Bukovina
region, through their Society for Romanian Literature and Culture.
Meanwhile, he reconciled himself with the National Liberal Party, and was accepted back into its ranks. This happened after the new party leader Dimitrie Sturdza
promised to support, albeit gradually, the introduction of universal male suffrage and proportional representation
, ideas express in his "Program of Iaşi
" (November 1892). As such, in October 1895, Fleva came to lead Internal Affairs, in Sturdza's National Liberal cabinet. The cabinet, appointed by Carol, had to be confirmed by an election, and, sources attest, Fleva served his democratic ideal by ensuring that the 1895 suffrage was carried without fraud.
At the time, Nicolae Fleva's perceived demagogy was a subject of amusement: painter-aristocrat Eugen N. Ghika-Budeşti published cartoons of Fleva, showing him as a would-be Gracchus
of Romania. This interval also made Fleva a prime target of celebrated Romanian satirist Ion Luca Caragiale
, his former Alegătorul Liber colleague, who had by then moved closer to Junimist politics. Caragiale ridiculed claims that elections were free under Fleva's mandate, depicting the Minister as one who falls ill from speaking too much (about clergy, Gendarmes, linguistic protectionism and "the sovereign people").
Fleva's involvement in popular causes was turning into a liability. His reintegration by the National Liberal Party effectively split the movement into two competing factions: the "Flevists", or "Liberal Democratic Party", represented the middle class and petite bourgeoisie
vote; the "Sturdzists" mainly brought together landowners and bankers. The Prime Minister, made notorious by his lack of authority, and his Internal Affairs subordinate despised each other, particularly since Fleva noted that Sturdza lacked the political motivation to ever apply his "Program of Iaşi". According to some, Fleva's fight against government abuse was what caused his fall during a cabinet reshuffling, only three months after electoral victory. Bacalbaşa notes that Fleva first attracted his colleagues' hostility when he inspected first-hand, and punished, the damage done by government representatives in the village of Spineni
. Sturdza interpreted this work as a sign of disloyalty, and the National Liberal paper Voinţa Naţională made a show of Fleva, publishing allegations about his conduct in both public and private. In what was virtually an unprecedented gesture, Titu Maiorescu
, who had become leader of the opposition, denounced such mudslinging from the Assembly's rostrum.
. Iepurescu, a Giurgiu County
representative, questioned the Minister's provisions against fodder
shortages. Iepurescu's story was that, against the specialists' advice, Fleva had ordered massive imports of hay
for national or ministerial use. Some, beginning with Maiorescu, have questioned whether Iepurescu himself was a man of character. Fleva asked to present his version with a speech in Parliament
, programmed for January 13, 1896. On January 12, Sturdza confirmed that Fleva had lost his office, implying that his activity during the elections was under scrutiny; when the Assembly began preparing procedures to oust him, Fleva replied with rage, denouncing the National Liberal Party as an occult organization. He is believed to have coined the term Oculta ("The Occult [Faction]"), which was subsequently used to designate the secretive triumvirate of National Liberal figures, allegedly Sturdza's puppet-masters: Eugeniu Carada, Pache Protopopescu, Gogu Cantacuzino.
The next day, instead of the scheduled pro domo, the Assembly registered his resignation. Founding the independent newspaper Dreptatea
, Fleva turned on his former colleagues in power. His disaffiliation with the National Liberals came after Sturdza and his ministers took the risk of intervening in Orthodox Church
affairs—deposing Metropolitan-Primate
Ghenadie Petrescu
. Fleva took Ghenadie's side. Especially for the purpose, he set up a new anti-government coalition with the Conservatives, and lend a hand to the eventual fall of Sturdza's cabinet in November 1896. During the incidents, Fleva reunited with his old friend Alexandru Macedonski
, by then a maverick conservative; his articles in support of Ghenadie were published by Macedonski's political-literary review Liga Ortodoxă. Also joining Fleva's group was a former socialist
from Moldavia, George A. Scorţescu, who published Evenimentul newspaper. In tandem, a second dissident faction, formed around Petre S. Aurelian
and Drapelul newspaper, and likewise attached to electoral reform projects, took still more voters away from the National Liberal Party.
Speaking for the Junimists, Maiorescu expressed disdain for all these emerging factions, as exponents of a sciolistic political culture. In a letter of June 1898, he made special note of these developments: "All the Liberals, the Drapelul men and of course the Flevists too, are utterly ignorant (except for Sturdza and Beldiman [...]) and enrich themselves through politics. If you were to ask Stătescu or Lascăr, or Costinescu, or Fleva, about a Shelley
or an Echegaray
or a D'Annunzio
, or even a Marshall
, a Khuen-Héderváry
... they'd have no clue [...]; they might even be looking to find Camões
among their contemporaries". Historian Ion Bulei, who finds Maiorescu's text to be cruel, also writes that it addresses a reality: "if the doctrinaire level of all Romanian politicians was rather base in what was Old Romania
, the liberals' was yet more base. Between the practical accomplishments of the National Liberal Party and the level of its intellectual preoccupations, there was always disharmony."
. He would serve until June 7, 1900.
This mandate was again touched by controversy involving fodder supplies: Fleva again ordered imported hay, much more than was needed, and any excess amount was destroyed by the rain season. Another unusual and criticized decision taken by Fleva (in his secondary capacity as Minister of Industry and Commerce) was the abolition of virtually all patent
s, measures justified by his belief that intellectual property rights
were holding back industrialization. This policy, backed by a sizable portion of the public, was only repealed in 1906, under continued pressure from the international arms industry
.
In February 1901, Nicolae Fleva was made the Romanian Ambassador to Italy—a position he maintained until July 1909. As one of his activities there, Fleva officially represented Romanian interests during the creation of an International Institute of Agriculture
, and signed its founding document in 1905. During the interval, Fleva was attracted into the Conservative-Democratic Party, presided upon by his old colleague Take Ionescu
, who had also gravitated between the two main parties. Described by the press as Ionescu's right hand, Fleva ran in the Assembly elections of 1908, as top of the Conservative-Democratic list for Bucharest. His campaign was unusually supported by Caragiale, who had turned Conservative-Democrat, and who spoke directly to the regular voters about Fleva's merits. Fleva received most votes (1,223), and propelled his party into the top position.
After taking his seat, he returned to public attention when he was the first, and for long only, member of Parliament to note that Vintilă Brătianu
, the National Liberal Mayor of Bucharest, was in a conflict of interest
. The matter, which focused on how City Hall granted the contract for a new tramcar
line, later exploded nationally as the "Tramcar Affair".
By January 1912, Fleva's relationship with the Conservative-Democrats had turned into hostility. He quit the party, which had by then allied itself to the National Liberals, noting that Ionescu no longer stood for the initial goals: updating the 1866 Constitution
and promoting land reform
. A year later, a Conservative—Junimist—Conservative-Democratic alliance was in power, with Titu Maiorescu as Prime Minister. Fleva took to the dissident Conservative club of Grigore G. Cantacuzino, which published the gazette Seara
. This notoriously bawdy and violent paper was mounting a campaign against Interior Minister Alexandru Bădărău; Fleva joined in, with a claim that Bădărău was demented.
During those years, Fleva was also indulging his passion for horse racing. After 1905, when a replica of Longchamp Racecourse was eventually built in Bucharest (on grounds now occupied by Casa Presei Libere
), he became one of the regular visitors.
, when Romania found itself in uncertain neutrality, he spoke from the Assembly rostrum as an advocate of the Entente Powers
. At the time, he believed that fighting alongside the Entente, and therefore against Austria-Hungary, would guarantee Romania's integration of Transylvania and other irredenta: "our public, being a Latin people [...] could only have felt its interests as being at one with those of the Triple Entente [...]. We must not be looking on impassably to the fate of the Romanian nation in Transylvania, to how it is being torn asunder." A failure to answer this call, he claimed, would have made his "the least worthy of all generations".
As time progressed, Fleva became more sympathetic to the "Germanophile
" camp, which pushed for committing Romania to the Central Powers
(see Romania in World War I). The same course was maintained by Seara, managed at that stage by a consortium of businessmen from the German Empire
. Dimineaţa daily, which had anti-German and pro-Entente sentiments, reported with pleasure that the Germans could not convince Fleva to take over as Searas editorial manager; its claims were partly backed by Fleva's own note, published in Dreptatea (November-December 1914). Fleva reportedly received such offers from two German propagandists, Hilmar von dem Bussche-Haddenhausen and Josef B. Brociner, but did not provide an answer, and even threw Brociner out in the street. However, in October 1915, Fleva accepted to become "Political Director" of Libertatea ("Freedom"). Probably the second Germanophile tribune to be secretly financed by Searas Alexandru Bogdan-Piteşti
, it was edited by young activist writers Tudor Arghezi
and Gala Galaction
. This sheet was mainly the voice of left-wing Germanophilia, maintaining that the need to enact social reforms was more important than any casus belli
. Although he resigned only a month into his assignment, Fleva still published with it until Romania declared war on Germany
.
From the pro-Entente camp, but also from among his own circles, accusations surfaced that Fleva had in fact become an agent of influence
for the German Empire
. The Germanophile figure Ion Bianu specifically noted that Fleva had received 100,000 lei
from German intelligence before taking over at Libertatea (the information was probably backed by a 1916 official report, now lost, on the subversive activities of German oil investor Albert E. Günther). Such allegations remain unproven, and, to his admirers, Fleva endured the incorruptible politician.
Fleva survived the war and the Central Powers' two-year-long occupation of southern Romania. He died on August 4, 1920, either in Jideni (now part of Râmnicu Sărat) or in Focşani
. He was by then noticeably poor, and largely forgotten by the general public.
Wallachia
Wallachia or Walachia is a historical and geographical region of Romania. It is situated north of the Danube and south of the Southern Carpathians...
n-born Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
n politician, political journalist and lawyer. Known especially for his involvement in political incidents, and for a stated patriotism
Patriotism
Patriotism is a devotion to one's country, excluding differences caused by the dependencies of the term's meaning upon context, geography and philosophy...
bordering on demagogy
Demagogy
Demagogy or demagoguery is a strategy for gaining political power by appealing to the prejudices, emotions, fears, vanities and expectations of the public—typically via impassioned rhetoric and propaganda, and often using nationalist, populist or religious themes...
, he tested all political formulas that Romania's two-party system
Two-party system
A two-party system is a system where two major political parties dominate voting in nearly all elections at every level of government and, as a result, all or nearly all elected offices are members of one of the two major parties...
would allow. His activity in the public sphere brought a decades-long presence in the Assembly of Deputies
Chamber of Deputies of Romania
The Chamber of Deputies is the lower house in Romania's bicameral parliament. It has 315 seats, to which deputies are elected by direct popular vote on a proportional representation basis to serve four-year terms...
and a mandate as Mayor
Mayor of Bucharest
The Mayor of Bucharest , sometimes known as the General Mayor, is the head of the Bucharest City Hall in Bucharest, Romania, which is responsible for city-wide affairs, such as the water system, the transport system and the main boulevards...
of Bucharest
Bucharest
Bucharest is the capital municipality, cultural, industrial, and financial centre of Romania. It is the largest city in Romania, located in the southeast of the country, at , and lies on the banks of the Dâmbovița River....
between 1884 and 1886.
After beginnings with the National Liberal Party
National Liberal Party (Romania)
The National Liberal Party , abbreviated to PNL, is a centre-right liberal party in Romania. It is the third-largest party in the Romanian Parliament, with 53 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and 22 in the Senate: behind the centre-right Democratic Liberal Party and the centre-left Social...
, which he helped establish and represented in court, Fleva came to oppose its monopoly on power. He experimented with creating a third party, negotiated common platforms for the various opposition forces, including the Conservatives and the Junimea
Junimea
Junimea was a Romanian literary society founded in Iaşi in 1863, through the initiative of several foreign-educated personalities led by Titu Maiorescu, Petre P. Carp, Vasile Pogor, Theodor Rosetti and Iacob Negruzzi...
society, during contiguous National Liberal administrations. Fleva was notoriously involved in the major scandals of the 1880s, when his ridicule of National Liberal power generated street battles and sparked two separate shooting incidents. At the time, "Flevist" groups were seen as the leading voice of middle class
Middle class
The middle class is any class of people in the middle of a societal hierarchy. In Weberian socio-economic terms, the middle class is the broad group of people in contemporary society who fall socio-economically between the working class and upper class....
discontentment, and formed one of several currents pushing for the adoption of universal male suffrage.
Fleva returned into the National Liberal camp when he was refused a leading role in Conservative cabinets, and, in 1895–1896, was the Internal Affairs Minister. He clashed with the party over a number of issues, returned into opposition, and was later (1899–1900) the Conservative Minister of Agriculture
Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (Romania)
The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development of Romania is one of the nineteen ministries of the Government of Romania.The current Minister is Valeriu Tabără. The first post-Communist Minister of Agriculture was Victor Surdu....
. Involved as both accused and accuser in some corruption scandals of the early 20th century, he was sent Ambassador to Italy, and ended his career with a stint in the Conservative-Democratic Party. During World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, Fleva brought suspicion on himself as a supporter, and possible agent of influence
Agent of influence
An agent of influence is a person whose political actions and arguments are alleged to serve the interests of a foreign power, and to be directed or manipulated by the intelligence agency of that power...
, of the Central Powers
Central Powers
The Central Powers were one of the two warring factions in World War I , composed of the German Empire, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Ottoman Empire, and the Kingdom of Bulgaria...
.
Origins and early career
The future politician was born in the Wallachian town of Râmnicu SăratRâmnicu Sarat
Râmnicu Sărat is a city in Buzău County, Romania. It was declared a municipality in 1439. On December 21, 1994 it celebrated its 555th anniversary....
to a family of low-ranking boyar
Boyar
A boyar, or bolyar , was a member of the highest rank of the feudal Moscovian, Kievan Rus'ian, Bulgarian, Wallachian, and Moldavian aristocracies, second only to the ruling princes , from the 10th century through the 17th century....
s. He was a descendant of Greek
Greeks in Romania
There has been a Greek presence in Romania for at least 27 centuries. At times, as during the Phanariote era, this presence has amounted to hegemony; at other times , the Greeks have simply been one among the many ethnic minorities in Romania.-Ancient and Medieval Period:The Greek presence in what...
settlers, who probably arrived to the Buzău
Buzau
The city of Buzău is the county seat of Buzău County, Romania, in the historical region of Wallachia. It lies near the right bank of the Buzău River, between the south-eastern curvature of the Carpathian Mountains and the lowlands of Bărăgan Plain.The city's name dates back to 376 AD when the name...
region during the Phanariote
Phanariotes
Phanariots, Phanariotes, or Phanariote Greeks were members of those prominent Greek families residing in Phanar , the chief Greek quarter of Constantinople, where the Ecumenical Patriarchate is situated.For all their cosmopolitanism and often Western education, the Phanariots were...
era. He had a sister, Cleopatra (married Tabacopol), whose daughter Alexandrina was married to Ion Istrati, Adjutant
Adjutant
Adjutant is a military rank or appointment. In some armies, including most English-speaking ones, it is an officer who assists a more senior officer, while in other armies, especially Francophone ones, it is an NCO , normally corresponding roughly to a Staff Sergeant or Warrant Officer.An Adjutant...
to the King of Romania
King of Romania
King of the Romanians , rather than King of Romania , was the official title of the ruler of the Kingdom of Romania from 1881 until 1947, when Romania was proclaimed a republic....
between 1892 and 1897.
In youth, Nicolae Fleva attended the Saint Sava College
Saint Sava College
Saint Sava College was one of the earliest academic institutions in Wallachia, Romania. It was the predecessor to both Saint Sava National College and the University of Bucharest.-History:...
, Bucharest, and graduated in Law at the University of Naples
University of Naples Federico II
The University of Naples Federico II is a university located in Naples, Italy. It was founded in 1224 and is organized into 13 faculties. It is the world's oldest state university and one of the oldest academic institutions in continuous operation...
(1867). Upon his return to Romania, Fleva spent a period tending to his lands in Putna County
Putna County
Putna was a county in the Kingdom of Romania, in southern Moldavia. The county seat was Focṣani.-Administrative organization:Administratively, Putna County was divided into six districts :# Plasa Bilieşti# Plasa Gârlele...
, pursuing interests in agriculture and horse breeding
Horse breeding
Horse breeding is reproduction in horses, and particularly the human-directed process of selective breeding of animals, particularly purebred horses of a given breed. Planned matings can be used to produce specifically desired characteristics in domesticated horses...
: he judged in ploughing contests at local fairs, and received a silver medal for his mare Diditia. Fleva brought professional harness racing
Harness racing
Harness racing is a form of horse racing in which the horses race at a specific gait . They usually pull a two-wheeled cart called a sulky, although racing under saddle is also conducted in Europe.-Breeds:...
to Romania, and received honorable mention for his own contribution to that sport.
In addition to building a legal career, and becoming one of the most successful legal professionals of the 1870s, Fleva created a trademark and highly unconventional political style. Described by contemporaries as possessing a warm and engaging voice, he relied on patriotic-themed oratory, and reportedly spoke for four hours on end without accepting interruptions. He notoriously organized electoral National Liberal rallies in front of patriotic landmarks, such as the Michael the Brave Monument in University Square
University Square, Bucharest
University Square is located in downtown Bucharest, near the University of Bucharest.Four statues are located in the University Square, in front of the University; they depict Ion Heliade Rădulescu , Michael the Brave , Gheorghe Lazăr and Spiru Haret .The square was the site of the 1990 Golaniad,...
. With time, Fleva became known to his supporters as Tribunul, "the Tribune
Tribune
Tribune was a title shared by elected officials in the Roman Republic. Tribunes had the power to convene the Plebeian Council and to act as its president, which also gave them the right to propose legislation before it. They were sacrosanct, in the sense that any assault on their person was...
", or variations of that nickname. Writing in 2011, journalist Maria Apostol called him "one of the most controversial political figures in the history of Romania." Fleva himself did not preoccupy himself with his colleagues' resentment of his conduct, and publicized as his motto the phrase: "I'd rather have enemies who respect me than friends who despise me."
One of the first causes involving Fleva, as a young figure in the liberal-republican opposition
Liberalism and radicalism in Romania
This article gives an overview of Liberalism and Radicalism in Romania. It is limited to liberal parties with substantial support, mainly proved by having had a representation in parliament. The sign ⇒ denotes another party in this scheme...
, was the dispute between liberals and Romania's monarch, Domnitor
Domnitor
Domnitor was the official title of the ruler of the United Principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia between 1859 and 1866....
Carol of Hohenzollern
Carol I of Romania
Carol I , born Prince Karl of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen was reigning prince and then King of Romania from 1866 to 1914. He was elected prince of Romania on 20 April 1866 following the overthrow of Alexandru Ioan Cuza by a palace coup...
. The "Tribune" was first elected to the Assembly in the 1870 suffrage, representing the 4th (lowest) Electoral Collage in Putna County. He stood out in that legislature with claims that the election for town and city councils were being rigged by the political establishment, and congratulated those who, like Nicolae Moret Blaremberg, denounced the politics of Prime Minister
Prime Minister of Romania
The Prime Minister of Romania is the head of the Government of Romania. Initially, the office was styled President of the Council of Ministers , when the term "Government" included more than the Cabinet, and the Cabinet was called The Council of Ministers...
M. C. Epureanu
Manolache Costache Epureanu
Manolache Costache Epureanu was twice the Prime Minister of Romania as a representative of the Conservative Party: in 1870 and in 1876 .- Biography :...
.
The period saw him joining a defense team for soldiers and civilians prosecuted by the state for their roles in the "Republic of Ploieşti
Republic of Ploiesti
The Republic of Ploiești was a revolt against the Romanian monarchy in the city of Ploiești, Romania, on August 8, 1870.-Background:Romanian liberal radicals of Ploiești and elsewhere were opposed to the new ruler of the country, Prince Carol of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen , and desired a republic to...
" conspiracy—all of them, including liberal leaders Ion Brătianu
Ion Bratianu
Ion C. Brătianu was one of the major political figures of 19th century Romania. He was the younger brother of Dimitrie, as well as the father of Ionel, Dinu, and Vintilă Brătianu...
, C. A. Rosetti
C. A. Rosetti
Constantin Alexandru Rosetti was a Romanian literary and political leader, born in Bucharest into a Phanariot Greek family.In 1845, Rosetti went to Paris, where he met Alphonse de Lamartine, the patron of the Society of Romanian Students in Paris. In 1847, he married Mary Grant, the sister of the...
, Eugeniu Carada and Anton I. Arion
Anton I. Arion
Anton I. Arion was a Romanian politician who served as the Minister of Interior from August 12, 1868 until November 16, 1868.-External links:* famouswhy.ro...
, were acquitted. Fleva, whose successful defense tactic had was contending that Epureanu's men had incited and mislead Romanian republicans, publicized his speeches in court as the 1871 booklet Procesul lui 8 august. Apărarea făcută celor 41 acusaţi ("The Trial of August 8. The Defense of the 41 Accused"). This was to be the first of several confrontations between Fleva and Carol, who even consider abdicating the throne after the court justified its verdict.
During 1875, Fleva also participated in the heated debate about regulating wheat trade between Romania and the Russian Empire
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
. Against the position held by Prime Minister Lascăr Catargiu
Lascar Catargiu
Lascăr Catargiu was a Romanian conservative statesman born in Moldavia. He belonged to an ancient Wallachian family, one of whose members had been banished in the 17th century by Prince Matei Basarab, and had settled in Moldavia.-Biography:...
, and against voices from his own faction, Fleva suggested that Russia's demand for most favored nation status was acceptable. The parallel signing of a commercial agreement between Romania and Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary , more formally known as the Kingdoms and Lands Represented in the Imperial Council and the Lands of the Holy Hungarian Crown of Saint Stephen, was a constitutional monarchic union between the crowns of the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary in...
, her protectionist neighbor to the northwest, angered the anti-Austrian liberals, to the point where a liberal conspiracy began to emerge.
1875 arrest and the "Mazar Paşa" coalition
Subsequently, Fleva played a part in the effort to unite a single liberal opposition against the conservatismConservatism
Conservatism is a political and social philosophy that promotes the maintenance of traditional institutions and supports, at the most, minimal and gradual change in society. Some conservatives seek to preserve things as they are, emphasizing stability and continuity, while others oppose modernism...
of Catargiu and other political leaders closest to Carol. By then the Bucharest-based liberal movement expanded its basis, reaching out to various undecided liberal clubs. It was soon joined by the main anti-Catargiu factions: a moderate current spearheaded by Ion Ghica
Ion Ghica
Ion Ghica was a Romanian revolutionary, mathematician, diplomat and twice Prime Minister of Romania . He was a full member of the Romanian Academy and its president for four times...
and Mihail Kogălniceanu
Mihail Kogalniceanu
Mihail Kogălniceanu was a Moldavian-born Romanian liberal statesman, lawyer, historian and publicist; he became Prime Minister of Romania October 11, 1863, after the 1859 union of the Danubian Principalities under Domnitor Alexander John Cuza, and later served as Foreign Minister under Carol I. He...
; Nicolae Ionescu
Nicolae Ionescu
Nicolae Ionescu was a Romanian politician and publisher. He was one of the founding members of the Romanian Academy.-References:...
and his "Fractionists" from the eastern Romanian province of Moldavia
Moldavia
Moldavia is a geographic and historical region and former principality in Eastern Europe, corresponding to the territory between the Eastern Carpathians and the Dniester river...
; and a group of former conservatives such as Epureanu. The first result of their effort was a political gazette, Alegătorul Liber ("The Enfranchised Voter"). Fleva was part of the Editorial Committee, which included almost all of the liberal leadership (excluding C. A. Rosetti), and employed the young satirical journalist Ion Luca Caragiale
Ion Luca Caragiale
Ion Luca Caragiale was a Wallachian-born Romanian playwright, short story writer, poet, theater manager, political commentator and journalist...
as copy editor.
Carried by Fleva's oratory and by exposes in Alegătorul Liber, the liberal campaigners entered the 1875 electoral race with confidence. The moment degenerated in national confusion, after supporters of the two sides organized brawl and a pro-Catargiu electoral agent was killed in public. Citing concerns that Fleva was inciting Bucharest's populace, the Prime Minister ordered his arrest, and Fleva was detained in Văcăreşti prison; the young politician was released in short time. Welcomed back by "a delirious crowd", he also took part in successfully defending the anti-conservative poet Alexandru Macedonski
Alexandru Macedonski
Alexandru Macedonski was a Wallachian-born Romanian poet, novelist, dramatist and literary critic, known especially for having promoted French Symbolism in his native country, and for leading the Romanian Symbolist movement during its early decades...
, who faced similar accusations.
At this point in time, the factions found support from Stephen "Mazar Paşa" Lakeman
Stephen Bartlett Lakeman
Sir Stephen Bartlett Lakeman, also known as Mazar Paşa or Mozhar Pasha was an English-born British and Ottoman adventurer, soldier, and administrator...
, who, as a loyal subject of the British Kingdom
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was the formal name of the United Kingdom during the period when what is now the Republic of Ireland formed a part of it....
, may have intended to steer Romania away from Austria-Hungary. Fleva was personally involved in the negotiations presided upon by Lakeman, which resulted in the formation of a single National Liberal Party. His name features among those of 25 members of the party's "Steering Committee", on a list published by Rosetti's Românul in June 1875.
By March 1876, Catargiu fell out of favor with Carol, who reportedly decided that, as candidate for the premiership, Brătianu was "reasonable and humble". This followed a winter of National Liberal agitation, with renewed plans for a Romanian Republic, and then an understanding between the two sides, brokered by Romanian Police
Romanian Police
The Romanian Police is the national police force and main civil law enforcement agency in Romania. It is subordinated to the Ministry of Interior and Administrative Reform.-Duties:The Romanian Police are responsible for:...
chief Ion Bălăceanu
Ion Bălăceanu
Ion Bălăceanu was the Minister of Foreign Affairs from January 30, 1876 until March 31, 1876 during the existence of United Principalities. Bălăceanu is considered one of the most active foreign ministers who promoted closer alliances of Romania with Great Britain and France rather than with...
. Nicolae Fleva returned as National Liberal deputy in the early elections of 1876, and was reconfirmed in the 1879 suffrage. The new Premier, Ion Brătianu, promoted Fleva to a position of influence in the party: with Eugeniu Stătescu
Eugeniu Stătescu
Eugeniu Stătescu was a Romanian politician who served as the Minister of Internal Affairs from April 10, 1881 until June 8, 1881 and as Minister of Foreign Affairs from June 9, 1881 until July 30, 1881 during the existence of United Principalities...
and Mihail Pherekyde
Mihail Pherekyde
Mihail Pherekyde was a Romanian politician and diplomat who served as the Minister of Foreign Affairs and two terms as the Minister of Internal Affairs of Kingdom of Romania-Life and political career:...
, Fleva controlled the grassroots campaign against non-liberals. He was at the time collecting support for a motion to sue Catargiu for damages, years after Catargiu had quelled the riots in Bucharest. Despite being engaged at the core of liberal politics, Fleva defended former Education Minister Titu Maiorescu
Titu Maiorescu
Titu Liviu Maiorescu was a Romanian literary critic and politician, founder of the Junimea Society. As a literary critic, he was instrumental in the development of Romanian culture in the second half of the 19th century....
, founder of the conservative club Junimea
Junimea
Junimea was a Romanian literary society founded in Iaşi in 1863, through the initiative of several foreign-educated personalities led by Titu Maiorescu, Petre P. Carp, Vasile Pogor, Theodor Rosetti and Iacob Negruzzi...
. Maiorescu was himself becoming a rival of Catargiu, and stood for a "Young Conservative" reform movement. Fleva was part of a special commission who investigated Maiorescu' malfeasance in office, following allegations made by the National Liberal Andrei Vizanti, and his vote helped clear Maiorescu of all charges.
New-generation liberal and mayoral election
Fleva's term as deputy also coincided with historical events relating to the Russo-Turkish War and Romanian independenceRomanian War of Independence
The Romanian War of Independence is the name used in Romanian historiography to refer to the 1877-1878 Russo-Turkish war, following which Romania, fighting on the Russian side, gained independence from the Ottoman Empire...
. On May 9, 1877, he inquired Foreign Minister Kogălniceanu about the Russian attack on the Ottoman Empire
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
; Kogălniceanu confirmed that Romania considered itself independent from her Ottoman sovereign. Although taken by some to mean that Romania was free as of May 9, this carefully staged discussion was a preamble to the actual declaration of May 10, when Carol was to be confirmed as the first Domnitor of an independent Romania. Having also presented himself in elections for the Bucharest Communal Council, Fleva became one of three assistants to Mayor C. A. Rosetti, whose mandate coincided with the first year of Romania's war.
Around 1880, when the anti-liberal pole was organizing itself into the Conservative Party, Fleva was being identified by his adversaries as a main exponent of a new National Liberal ideology and morality. Writing for Timpul
Timpul
Timpul is a newspaper published in Romania, originally published as the official platform of the defunct Conservative Party....
newspaper, the national conservative
National conservatism
National conservatism is a political term used primarily in Europe to describe a variant of conservatism which concentrates more on national interests than standard conservatism as well as upholding cultural and ethnic identity, while not being outspokenly nationalist or supporting a far-right...
poet and essayist Mihai Eminescu
Mihai Eminescu
Mihai Eminescu was a Romantic poet, novelist and journalist, often regarded as the most famous and influential Romanian poet. Eminescu was an active member of the Junimea literary society and he worked as an editor for the newspaper Timpul , the official newspaper of the Conservative Party...
stirred passions with his radical critique of this emerging group, nominating Fleva alongside Pherekyde and others as "foreign" and "superimposed" enemies of national development. In one of his lampoons, published in August 1882, Eminescu uses analogy to suggest that Pherekyde's shadow cabinet
Shadow Cabinet
The Shadow Cabinet is a senior group of opposition spokespeople in the Westminster system of government who together under the leadership of the Leader of the Opposition form an alternative cabinet to the government's, whose members shadow or mark each individual member of the government...
was an anti-national abomination: "Dear people! What would you say if the Chancellor of Germany
Chancellor of Germany
The Chancellor of Germany is, under the German 1949 constitution, the head of government of Germany...
were named Pherekydes, if its ministers were named Carada, Fleva and Chiriţopol [...], if in that somewhere where all people have names like Meyer and Müller, all of its governing class were foreign? [...] You'd say: a destitute people that, driven to work like oxen to feed foreigners, foreigners and yet more foreigners."
As scholar Marius Turda notes, the objections were partly justified, since the new generation brought with it less credibility and more corruption. Fleva may even have been partly responsible for sacking Eminescu from the office of librarian, back when the National Liberals first began evaluating the loyalties of public servants. However, Eminescu's expanding xenophobia
Xenophobia
Xenophobia is defined as "an unreasonable fear of foreigners or strangers or of that which is foreign or strange". It comes from the Greek words ξένος , meaning "stranger," "foreigner" and φόβος , meaning "fear."...
caused disquiet in Conservative circles, since many Conservative leaders were of noted Greek or other non-Romanian origin.
Fleva's position as deputy was reconfirmed in the 1883 national elections, and again in the 1884 vote. These were the first-ever elections to be carried under a new electoral law, pushed by the core group of National Liberal, and extending representation and disestablishing the 4th Electoral College. By then, the "Tribune" had his fief in Bucharest, and his appeal there propelled him to the office of Mayor during the local election of 1884. However, he also benefited from Eugeniu Stătescu's withdrawal from the National Liberal caucus, which propelled Fleva to head of the electoral list. Fleva did not replace an active Mayor, but rather took his seat from an interim bureau, presided upon by M. Török.
Fleva's own team of Councilors included 6 public figures, among them civil engineer Grigore Cerchez and future Mayor Ion Dobrovici (both of whom survived recall, serving in Fleva's second advisory team). The team's focus was on the sanitation
Sanitation
Sanitation is the hygienic means of promoting health through prevention of human contact with the hazards of wastes. Hazards can be either physical, microbiological, biological or chemical agents of disease. Wastes that can cause health problems are human and animal feces, solid wastes, domestic...
of Dâmboviţa River
Dâmbovita River
Dâmbovița is a river in Romania. It has its sources in the Făgăraş Mountains, on the Curmătura Oticu. The upper reach of the rivers, upstream of the confluence with the Boarcăşu River is also known as Izvorul Oticului River or Oticu River....
, for which purpose Mayor Fleva contracted English
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
engineer William Lindley
William Lindley
William Lindley , was a famous English engineer who together with his sons designed water and sewerage systems for over 30 cities across Europe.-Life:...
. Upon inspection, Lindley advised against using Dâmboviţa as a water supply
Water supply
Water supply is the provision of water by public utilities, commercial organisations, community endeavours or by individuals, usually via a system of pumps and pipes...
, even as filters had been installed, and the project began to redirect water from further upstream.
United Opposition
Fleva's time in National Liberal politics ended while he was still Mayor, under a Ion Brătianu cabinet. Known to his adversaries as "The VizierVizier
A vizier or in Arabic script ; ; sometimes spelled vazir, vizir, vasir, wazir, vesir, or vezir) is a high-ranking political advisor or minister in a Muslim government....
", the Prime Minster was for a while unchallenged in his party, having marginalized his most powerful competitor C. A. Rosetti. Ion Brătianu even faced opposition from his brother, Dimitrie Brătianu
Dimitrie Bratianu
Dimitrie Brătianu was the Prime Minister of Romania from 22 April to 21 June 1881 and Minister of Foreign Affairs from April 10, 1881 until June 8, 1881....
, who took on Rosetti's campaign for universal male suffrage, but, unlike the radicals, tended to favor the over-representation of Romania's middle class
Middle class
The middle class is any class of people in the middle of a societal hierarchy. In Weberian socio-economic terms, the middle class is the broad group of people in contemporary society who fall socio-economically between the working class and upper class....
. Close to this pole, Fleva was among those jaded party militants who accused their Prime Minister of tyrannical stances, and who turned on Carol (by then King of Romania
King of Romania
King of the Romanians , rather than King of Romania , was the official title of the ruler of the Kingdom of Romania from 1881 until 1947, when Romania was proclaimed a republic....
). This time around, Carol stood accused of having created a political machine
Political machine
A political machine is a political organization in which an authoritative boss or small group commands the support of a corps of supporters and businesses , who receive rewards for their efforts...
in association with Ion Brătianu. His personal quarrel with Brătianu reached its peak when the two political figures duel
Duel
A duel is an arranged engagement in combat between two individuals, with matched weapons in accordance with agreed-upon rules.Duels in this form were chiefly practised in Early Modern Europe, with precedents in the medieval code of chivalry, and continued into the modern period especially among...
ed with pistols. Brătianu was the one to provoke Fleva, when the latter described the cabinet as a collection of "shadows"; Fleva's shot missed its target and then Brătianu's bullet hit him near the heart, but he luckily survived.
The period witnessed the birth of a new political conglomerate, called "Liberal Conservative Party": the Conservatives, alongside the dissenting "Sincere Liberals", plus the Moldavian "Fractionists". Political trouble followed, as the monarch, who now trusted Brătianu above all other politicians, refused to apply his prerogatives and rotate between the dominant factions.
With former enemy Catargiu, Fleva signed a manifesto against Carol, in which they alluded to the possibility of an anti-monarchical rebellion. In disparaging tone, the two united factions began referring to the National Liberal doctrinaires as "collectivists
Collectivism
Collectivism is any philosophic, political, economic, mystical or social outlook that emphasizes the interdependence of every human in some collective group and the priority of group goals over individual goals. Collectivists usually focus on community, society, or nation...
". Fleva was personally involved in forging the "United Opposition" bloc—he and Dimitrie Brătianu were among the recognized leaders of this new movement. Fleva also discussed cooperation with Junimea
Junimea
Junimea was a Romanian literary society founded in Iaşi in 1863, through the initiative of several foreign-educated personalities led by Titu Maiorescu, Petre P. Carp, Vasile Pogor, Theodor Rosetti and Iacob Negruzzi...
, the Conservative inner faction and splinter group, meeting with Junimist spokesman Alexandru Marghiloman
Alexandru Marghiloman
Alexandru Marghiloman was a Romanian conservative statesman who served for a short time in 1918 as Prime Minister of Romania, and had a decisive role during World War I.-Early career:...
. With Dimitrie Brătianu and other United Opposition men, he took part in agitation against the agents of government in Galaţi
Galati
Galați is a city and municipality in Romania, the capital of Galați County. Located in the historical region of Moldavia, in the close vicinity of Brăila, Galați is the largest port and sea port on the Danube River and the second largest Romanian port....
city, responding to report that the elections there where always fraudulent. In 1886, his own faction was joined by other former National Liberals, including Constantin C. Arion
Constantin C. Arion
Constantin C. Arion was a Romanian politician who served as the Minister of Religion and Public Instruction from December 29, 1910 until March 28, 1921, as Minister of Administration and Interior of Romania from March 28, 1912 until October 14, 1912 and as Minister of Foreign Affairs of Romania...
and Take Ionescu
Take Ionescu
Take or Tache Ionescu was a Romanian centrist politician, journalist, lawyer and diplomat, who also enjoyed reputation as a short story author. Starting his political career as a radical member of the National Liberal Party , he joined the Conservative Party in 1891, and became noted as a social...
. With Ionescu and young Conservative figure Nicolae Filipescu, Fleva created short-lived political club, the "League of Resistance" (1888), but Ionescu soon after made his way into the Conservative Party.
As Mayor, Nicolae Fleva was noted for setting up Sfântul Anton Market (near Manuc's Inn) and Eforiei Bathhouse (by Cişmigiu Gardens
Cismigiu Gardens
The Cişmigiu Gardens are a public park near the center of Bucharest, Romania, spanning areas on all sides of an artificial lake. The gardens' creation was an important moment in the history of Bucharest. They form the oldest and, at 17 hectares, the largest park in city's central area...
), and, in following with his passion for horses, for donating the Băneasa
Baneasa
Băneasa is a borough in the north side of Bucharest, near the Băneasa Lake . Like all north-side districts of Bucharest, it is relatively sparsely populated, with large areas of parkland...
grounds which became Bucharest's Racecourse. During his mandate, Bucharest saw the completion of 1,190 townhouses, including tens of two-, three- or four-story buildings. Some have nevertheless described these as unimportant achievements; literary historian Ioana Pârvulescu summarizes his term with the words "he did nothing", while, according to Apostol, Fleva "left no trace on how Bucharest developed". The administration started with a budget of 8,500,000 French franc
French franc
The franc was a currency of France. Along with the Spanish peseta, it was also a de facto currency used in Andorra . Between 1360 and 1641, it was the name of coins worth 1 livre tournois and it remained in common parlance as a term for this amount of money...
s, but the collected sum dropped to 7,660,000 by 1885, and stabilized itself at 7,807,000 in 1886. Fleva eventually presented his resignation in April 1886, citing disagreements with the City Council and the leaders of Police. He had by then drafted and proposed, unsuccessfully, a reform of the law on the attributes of Prefects
Prefect (Romania)
A prefect in Romania represents the Government in each of the country's 41 counties, as well as the Municipality of Bucharest.-Attributes:The main attributes of prefects are defined at Article 123 of the Constitution of Romania:...
.
1887–1888 riots
Such controversies reflected Nicolae Fleva's ongoing conflict with government: in 1887, he was again publicly asking King Carol not to endorse Ion Brătianu's agenda. After disputed elections for the city council of Galaţi, the executive prosecuted Catargiu, Dimitrie Brătianu and George D. VernescuGeorge D. Vernescu
George D. Vernescu was a Romanian politician and jurist who served as the Minister of Administration and Interior from April 27, 1876 until January 27, 1876, Minister of Justice from November 12, 1888 until March 22, 1889, as the Minister of Finance from March 29, 1889 until November 3, 1889 and...
as instigators. Fleva was part of the defense team (with Nicolae Moret Blaremberg, Petre Grădişteanu, Alexandru Lahovary
Alexandru Lahovary
Alexandru Lahovary was a member of the Romanian aristocracy, a politician and diplomat who served as the Minister of Justice, Minister of Agriculture, Industry, Trade and Property, Minister of Public Works and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Kingdom of Romania....
, Alexandru Djuvara
Alexandru Djuvara
-Early years:Djuvara was born in Bucharest on December 20, 1858. He was the uncle of prominent Romanian historian Neagu Djuvara.After graduation from Lycée Louis-le-Grand in Paris, he went on to study Law in the School of History and Political Science...
, George D. Pallade etc.); on December 18, 1887, the judge acquitted all of the accused. Fleva, Blaremberg and Ioan Lahovary
Ioan Lahovary
Ioan N. Lahovary or Ion Lahovari; January 25, 1844 – June 14, 1915) was a member of Romanian aristocracy, a politician and diplomat who served as the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Romania.-Life and political career:...
also defended the republican George Panu in his legal battle with the king (in his newspaper Lupta, Panu had published the United Opposition pamphlet "A Dangerous Man", where Carol was the main target). They lost, and Panu was sentenced to a two-year term in jail.
The electoral year of 1888 brought an explosive situation: on March 14, when Carol returned from a visit to Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
, Fleva, with Catargiu, Blaremberg and various others, instigated a riot which began at Orfeu Hall, Bucharest. Under their supervision, the crowd trying to occupy the building and make it an anti-government fief found its access blocked by pro-government men (soldiers, mounted Gendarmes, police or simply National Liberal militants). A chase followed through the city center, and the rioters attempted to make their way into the (old) Royal Palace, to demand that the king dispose of Brătianu (the king watched on, but gave no reaction).
The events were viewed with astonishment by the third-parties at Junimea. Its elder Petre P. Carp
Petre P. Carp
Petre P. Carp , commonly rendered as P. P. Carp, was a Romanian conservative politician and literary critic who served as a Prime Minister of Romania for two terms...
reported his horror at seeing soldiers attacking people who had done "absolutely nothing". The United Opposition protest of March 15, which accused Brătianu of carrying out a "massacre", was signed by Junimists Marghiloman and Iacob Negruzzi, although not by Carp. The same day, all opposition forces staged a March of Mourning to the Assembly Palace
Palace of the Patriarchate
The Palace of the Chamber of Deputies is a building in Bucharest, Romania located on the plateau of Dealul Mitropoliei...
, but again the road was barricaded by armed forces.
The deputies were allowed access into the hall, but the ceremony was interrupted when a rifle or pistol shot, of unknown origin, killed one of the hall's ushers. The deputies panicked before troops stormed in, and Carp was found standing near the body, engaged in a heated dispute with Sturdza. A version circulated by journalist and memoirist Constantin Bacalbaşa combats the initial police reports with claims of government conspiracy. According to Bacalbaşa, Ion Brătianu's men had hired a Sergent Silaghi to shoot Fleva from a ledge, but the nervous shooter had missed his target, and an innocent bystander took that bullet. In the end, Fleva and Filipescu were both arrested.
Fleva stood accused of inciting the riots, and even suspected of the murder: the police allegation was that a gun had been found on his person, but other reports state that none of the deputies was armed. Carp himself took the stand against government actions, denouncing a cover-up
Cover-up
A cover-up is an attempt, whether successful or not, to conceal evidence of wrong-doing, error, incompetence or other embarrassing information...
attempt. Fleva was brought to Văcăreşti, but again his prompt release sparked popular celebrations.
In short while, a mainly Junimist cabinet headed by Theodor Rosetti
Theodor Rosetti
Theodor Rosetti was a Romanian writer, journalist and politician who served as Prime Minister of Romania between 13 April 1888 and 11 April 1889....
was to take over. This was Carol's own choice of Prime Minister: the king recognized the National Liberal crisis, but adamantly refused to follow the United Opposition agenda. Nicolae Fleva was subsequently approached by Carp with an offer to head Internal Affairs. Legend goes that there was a debate among them regarding the sanctity of free suffrage, which governments in power tended to ignore. Fleva reportedly accepted, on condition that the Junimists hold free elections; the latter's reply was: "No free elections! But we'll get real elections!" The pro-Conservative daily România Liberă
România Libera
România Liberă is one of the leading newspapers in Romania. Based in Bucharest, the Romanian-language daily has a paid daily circulation of 40,000....
, whose editor Duiliu Zamfirescu
Duiliu Zamfirescu
Duiliu Zamfirescu was a Romanian novelist, poet, short story writer, lawyer, nationalist politician, journalist, diplomat and memoirist. In 1909, he was elected a member of the Romanian Academy, and, for a while in 1920, he was Foreign Minister of Romania...
was a passionate critic of Fleva, suggested that there was an unbridgeable gap, in both doctrine and interests, between the former two sides of United Opposition: "On one hand the Junimists with the Liberal-Conservatives and the Young Conservatives, supporting the government and holding the door open for all men of decency who, through similarity in ideas, may wish to work for the actual consolidation of the state and a true betterment of Romanian society; on the other the defeated collectivists, who will put out for any liberal who will fight the government, be they Fleva, Panu, Grădişteanu and Dim[itrie] Brătianu. In order to grow back into a force, [the National Liberals] are willing to bring into the family even their most unrelenting enemies of yesterday."
Interior Minister
Fleva was reelected to the Assembly of Deputies in the elections of 1891, after which came a short hiatus. During that time, he was especially interested in the fate of Romanians living in TransylvaniaTransylvania
Transylvania is a historical region in the central part of Romania. Bounded on the east and south by the Carpathian mountain range, historical Transylvania extended in the west to the Apuseni Mountains; however, the term sometimes encompasses not only Transylvania proper, but also the historical...
or in other parts of Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary , more formally known as the Kingdoms and Lands Represented in the Imperial Council and the Lands of the Holy Hungarian Crown of Saint Stephen, was a constitutional monarchic union between the crowns of the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary in...
, many of whom were complaining about government abuse and Magyarization
Magyarization
Magyarization is a kind of assimilation or acculturation, a process by which non-Magyar elements came to adopt Magyar culture and language due to social pressure .Defiance or appeals to the Nationalities Law, met...
policies (Transylvanian Memorandum
Transylvanian Memorandum
The Transylvanian Memorandum was a petition sent in 1892 by the leaders of the Romanians of Transylvania to the Austro-Hungarian Emperor-King Franz Joseph, asking for equal ethnic rights with the Hungarians, and demanding an end to persecutions and Magyarization attempts.-Status:After the Ausgleich...
). Representing Romania at a peace congress
Peace congress
A peace congress, in international relations, has at times been defined in a way that would distinguish it from a peace conference , as an ambitious forum to carry out dispute resolution in international affairs, and prevent wars...
in Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
, Fleva spoke positively about the demands of Romanian Transylvanian students, and obtained from the international representative a resolution favoring respect for national rights. He built contacts with Austria-Hungary's Romanian National Party
Romanian National Party
The Romanian National Party , initially known as the Romanian National Party in Transylvania and Banat , was a political party which was initially designed to offer ethnic representation to Romanians in the Kingdom of Hungary, the Transleithanian half of Austria-Hungary, and especially to those in...
and the Cultural League for the Unity of All Romanians, being a special guest at their 1894 banquet in Bucharest. Also that year, Fleva donated books to the Romanians of Bukovina
Bukovina
Bukovina is a historical region on the northern slopes of the northeastern Carpathian Mountains and the adjoining plains.-Name:The name Bukovina came into official use in 1775 with the region's annexation from the Principality of Moldavia to the possessions of the Habsburg Monarchy, which became...
region, through their Society for Romanian Literature and Culture.
Meanwhile, he reconciled himself with the National Liberal Party, and was accepted back into its ranks. This happened after the new party leader Dimitrie Sturdza
Dimitrie Sturdza
Dimitrie Sturdza was a Romanian statesman of the late 19th century, and president of the Romanian Academy between 1882 and 1884.-Biography:Born in Iaşi, Moldavia, and educated there at the Academia Mihăileană, he continued his studies in Germany, took part in the political movements of the time,...
promised to support, albeit gradually, the introduction of universal male suffrage and proportional representation
Proportional representation
Proportional representation is a concept in voting systems used to elect an assembly or council. PR means that the number of seats won by a party or group of candidates is proportionate to the number of votes received. For example, under a PR voting system if 30% of voters support a particular...
, ideas express in his "Program of Iaşi
Iasi
Iași is the second most populous city and a municipality in Romania. Located in the historical Moldavia region, Iași has traditionally been one of the leading centres of Romanian social, cultural, academic and artistic life...
" (November 1892). As such, in October 1895, Fleva came to lead Internal Affairs, in Sturdza's National Liberal cabinet. The cabinet, appointed by Carol, had to be confirmed by an election, and, sources attest, Fleva served his democratic ideal by ensuring that the 1895 suffrage was carried without fraud.
At the time, Nicolae Fleva's perceived demagogy was a subject of amusement: painter-aristocrat Eugen N. Ghika-Budeşti published cartoons of Fleva, showing him as a would-be Gracchus
Gracchi
The Gracchi brothers, Tiberius and Gaius, were Roman Plebian nobiles who both served as tribunes in 2nd century BC. They attempted to pass land reform legislation that would redistribute the major patrician landholdings among the plebeians. For this legislation and their membership in the...
of Romania. This interval also made Fleva a prime target of celebrated Romanian satirist Ion Luca Caragiale
Ion Luca Caragiale
Ion Luca Caragiale was a Wallachian-born Romanian playwright, short story writer, poet, theater manager, political commentator and journalist...
, his former Alegătorul Liber colleague, who had by then moved closer to Junimist politics. Caragiale ridiculed claims that elections were free under Fleva's mandate, depicting the Minister as one who falls ill from speaking too much (about clergy, Gendarmes, linguistic protectionism and "the sovereign people").
Fleva's involvement in popular causes was turning into a liability. His reintegration by the National Liberal Party effectively split the movement into two competing factions: the "Flevists", or "Liberal Democratic Party", represented the middle class and petite bourgeoisie
Petite bourgeoisie
Petit-bourgeois or petty bourgeois is a term that originally referred to the members of the lower middle social classes in the 18th and early 19th centuries...
vote; the "Sturdzists" mainly brought together landowners and bankers. The Prime Minister, made notorious by his lack of authority, and his Internal Affairs subordinate despised each other, particularly since Fleva noted that Sturdza lacked the political motivation to ever apply his "Program of Iaşi". According to some, Fleva's fight against government abuse was what caused his fall during a cabinet reshuffling, only three months after electoral victory. Bacalbaşa notes that Fleva first attracted his colleagues' hostility when he inspected first-hand, and punished, the damage done by government representatives in the village of Spineni
Spineni
Spineni is a commune in Olt County, Romania. It is composed of seven villages: Alunişu, Cuza Vodă, Davideşti, Optăşani, Profa, Spineni and Vineţi.-References:...
. Sturdza interpreted this work as a sign of disloyalty, and the National Liberal paper Voinţa Naţională made a show of Fleva, publishing allegations about his conduct in both public and private. In what was virtually an unprecedented gesture, Titu Maiorescu
Titu Maiorescu
Titu Liviu Maiorescu was a Romanian literary critic and politician, founder of the Junimea Society. As a literary critic, he was instrumental in the development of Romanian culture in the second half of the 19th century....
, who had become leader of the opposition, denounced such mudslinging from the Assembly's rostrum.
Fodder scandal and 1897 split
Fleva was eventually faced with accusations that, while in office, he had secretly engaged in contrabandContraband
The word contraband, reported in English since 1529, from Medieval French contrebande "a smuggling," denotes any item which, relating to its nature, is illegal to be possessed or sold....
. Iepurescu, a Giurgiu County
Giurgiu County
Giurgiu is a county of Romania, in Muntenia, with the capital city at Giurgiu.- Demographics :In 2002, it had a population of 297,859 and the population density was 84/km².* Romanians – over 96%* Roma – 3.5%, and others.- Geography :...
representative, questioned the Minister's provisions against fodder
Fodder
Fodder or animal feed is any agricultural foodstuff used specifically to feed domesticated livestock such as cattle, goats, sheep, horses, chickens and pigs. Most animal feed is from plants but some is of animal origin...
shortages. Iepurescu's story was that, against the specialists' advice, Fleva had ordered massive imports of hay
Hay
Hay is grass, legumes or other herbaceous plants that have been cut, dried, and stored for use as animal fodder, particularly for grazing livestock such as cattle, horses, goats, and sheep. Hay is also fed to pets such as rabbits and guinea pigs...
for national or ministerial use. Some, beginning with Maiorescu, have questioned whether Iepurescu himself was a man of character. Fleva asked to present his version with a speech in Parliament
Parliament of Romania
The Parliament of Romania is made up of two chambers:*The Chamber of Deputies*The SenatePrior to the modifications of the Constitution in 2003, the two houses had identical attributes. A text of a law had to be approved by both houses...
, programmed for January 13, 1896. On January 12, Sturdza confirmed that Fleva had lost his office, implying that his activity during the elections was under scrutiny; when the Assembly began preparing procedures to oust him, Fleva replied with rage, denouncing the National Liberal Party as an occult organization. He is believed to have coined the term Oculta ("The Occult [Faction]"), which was subsequently used to designate the secretive triumvirate of National Liberal figures, allegedly Sturdza's puppet-masters: Eugeniu Carada, Pache Protopopescu, Gogu Cantacuzino.
The next day, instead of the scheduled pro domo, the Assembly registered his resignation. Founding the independent newspaper Dreptatea
Dreptatea
Dreptatea was a Romanian newspaper that appeared between 17 October 1927 and 17 July 1947, as a newspaper of the National Peasants' Party. It was re-founded on February 5, 1990 as a publication of the Christian-Democratic National Peasants' Party ....
, Fleva turned on his former colleagues in power. His disaffiliation with the National Liberals came after Sturdza and his ministers took the risk of intervening in Orthodox Church
Romanian Orthodox Church
The Romanian Orthodox Church is an autocephalous Eastern Orthodox church. It is in full communion with other Eastern Orthodox churches, and is ranked seventh in order of precedence. The Primate of the church has the title of Patriarch...
affairs—deposing Metropolitan-Primate
Patriarch of All Romania
The Patriarch of All Romania is the title of the head of the Romanian Orthodox Church. As of September 12, 2007, the chair is occupied by Daniel Ciobotea.-Metropolitans of Ungro-Wallachia:* Maxim * Macarie II * Ilarion II...
Ghenadie Petrescu
Ghenadie Petrescu
Ghenadie Petrescu was a Wallachian-born Romanian priest of the national Orthodox church, who served as Metropolitan-Primate of Romania from 1893 to 1896. Ghenadie was a monk and hieromonk steadily progressing through church ranks, and becoming Bishop of Argeş in 1875...
. Fleva took Ghenadie's side. Especially for the purpose, he set up a new anti-government coalition with the Conservatives, and lend a hand to the eventual fall of Sturdza's cabinet in November 1896. During the incidents, Fleva reunited with his old friend Alexandru Macedonski
Alexandru Macedonski
Alexandru Macedonski was a Wallachian-born Romanian poet, novelist, dramatist and literary critic, known especially for having promoted French Symbolism in his native country, and for leading the Romanian Symbolist movement during its early decades...
, by then a maverick conservative; his articles in support of Ghenadie were published by Macedonski's political-literary review Liga Ortodoxă. Also joining Fleva's group was a former socialist
Socialism
Socialism is an economic system characterized by social ownership of the means of production and cooperative management of the economy; or a political philosophy advocating such a system. "Social ownership" may refer to any one of, or a combination of, the following: cooperative enterprises,...
from Moldavia, George A. Scorţescu, who published Evenimentul newspaper. In tandem, a second dissident faction, formed around Petre S. Aurelian
Petre S. Aurelian
Petre S. Aurelian was a Romanian politician who served as a Prime Minister of Romania between 2 December 1896 and 12 April 1897....
and Drapelul newspaper, and likewise attached to electoral reform projects, took still more voters away from the National Liberal Party.
Speaking for the Junimists, Maiorescu expressed disdain for all these emerging factions, as exponents of a sciolistic political culture. In a letter of June 1898, he made special note of these developments: "All the Liberals, the Drapelul men and of course the Flevists too, are utterly ignorant (except for Sturdza and Beldiman [...]) and enrich themselves through politics. If you were to ask Stătescu or Lascăr, or Costinescu, or Fleva, about a Shelley
Percy Bysshe Shelley
Percy Bysshe Shelley was one of the major English Romantic poets and is critically regarded as among the finest lyric poets in the English language. Shelley was famous for his association with John Keats and Lord Byron...
or an Echegaray
José Echegaray
José Echegaray y Eizaguirre was a Spanish civil engineer, mathematician, statesman, and one of the leading Spanish dramatists of the last quarter of the 19th century....
or a D'Annunzio
Gabriele D'Annunzio
Gabriele D'Annunzio or d'Annunzio was an Italian poet, journalist, novelist, and dramatist...
, or even a Marshall
Alfred Marshall
Alfred Marshall was an Englishman and one of the most influential economists of his time. His book, Principles of Economics , was the dominant economic textbook in England for many years...
, a Khuen-Héderváry
Károly Khuen-Héderváry
Dragutin Károly Khuen-Héderváry, also known as Károly Count Khuen-Héderváry de Hédervár , was a Hungarian politician, the ban of Croatia in the late nineteenth century. He succeeded the temporary reign of Ban Hermann Ramberg in 1883. Khuen's reign was marked by a strong magyarization...
... they'd have no clue [...]; they might even be looking to find Camões
Luís de Camões
Luís Vaz de Camões is considered Portugal's and the Portuguese language's greatest poet. His mastery of verse has been compared to that of Shakespeare, Vondel, Homer, Virgil and Dante. He wrote a considerable amount of lyrical poetry and drama but is best remembered for his epic work Os Lusíadas...
among their contemporaries". Historian Ion Bulei, who finds Maiorescu's text to be cruel, also writes that it addresses a reality: "if the doctrinaire level of all Romanian politicians was rather base in what was Old Romania
Romanian Old Kingdom
The Romanian Old Kingdom is a colloquial term referring to the territory covered by the first independent Romanian nation state, which was composed of the Danubian Principalities—Wallachia and Moldavia...
, the liberals' was yet more base. Between the practical accomplishments of the National Liberal Party and the level of its intellectual preoccupations, there was always disharmony."
Agriculture Minister, Ambassador and Conservative-Democrat
Reputedly, Fleva officially joined the Conservative Party in 1899, but the press for that year defined him as a self-styled "national democrat" in alliance with the Conservatives. The "Tribune" received a ninth mandate in the Assembly during the elections of 1899, which confirmed Conservative gains. On April 11, 1899, Premier Gheorghe Grigore Cantacuzino came to power after the fall of another Sturdza cabinet and four months of government crisis, placing Fleva in charge of the Ministry of Agriculture and Royal DomainsMinistry of Agriculture and Rural Development (Romania)
The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development of Romania is one of the nineteen ministries of the Government of Romania.The current Minister is Valeriu Tabără. The first post-Communist Minister of Agriculture was Victor Surdu....
. He would serve until June 7, 1900.
This mandate was again touched by controversy involving fodder supplies: Fleva again ordered imported hay, much more than was needed, and any excess amount was destroyed by the rain season. Another unusual and criticized decision taken by Fleva (in his secondary capacity as Minister of Industry and Commerce) was the abolition of virtually all patent
Patent
A patent is a form of intellectual property. It consists of a set of exclusive rights granted by a sovereign state to an inventor or their assignee for a limited period of time in exchange for the public disclosure of an invention....
s, measures justified by his belief that intellectual property rights
Intellectual property in Romania
Intellectual property law in Romania has developed significantly in the period since the Romanian Revolution of 1989 because of the need to enforce various regional and international treaties and agreements, such as the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights , the...
were holding back industrialization. This policy, backed by a sizable portion of the public, was only repealed in 1906, under continued pressure from the international arms industry
Arms industry
The arms industry is a global industry and business which manufactures and sells weapons and military technology and equipment. It comprises government and commercial industry involved in research, development, production, and service of military material, equipment and facilities...
.
In February 1901, Nicolae Fleva was made the Romanian Ambassador to Italy—a position he maintained until July 1909. As one of his activities there, Fleva officially represented Romanian interests during the creation of an International Institute of Agriculture
International Institute of Agriculture
The International Institute of Agriculture was founded in Rome in 1905 by the King of Italy with the intent of creating a clearinghouse for collection of agricultural statistics. It was created primarily due to the efforts of David Lubin. In 1930, the IIA published the first world census of...
, and signed its founding document in 1905. During the interval, Fleva was attracted into the Conservative-Democratic Party, presided upon by his old colleague Take Ionescu
Take Ionescu
Take or Tache Ionescu was a Romanian centrist politician, journalist, lawyer and diplomat, who also enjoyed reputation as a short story author. Starting his political career as a radical member of the National Liberal Party , he joined the Conservative Party in 1891, and became noted as a social...
, who had also gravitated between the two main parties. Described by the press as Ionescu's right hand, Fleva ran in the Assembly elections of 1908, as top of the Conservative-Democratic list for Bucharest. His campaign was unusually supported by Caragiale, who had turned Conservative-Democrat, and who spoke directly to the regular voters about Fleva's merits. Fleva received most votes (1,223), and propelled his party into the top position.
After taking his seat, he returned to public attention when he was the first, and for long only, member of Parliament to note that Vintilă Brătianu
Vintila Bratianu
Vintilă Brătianu was a Romanian politician who served as Prime Minister of Romania between 24 November 1927 and 2 November 1928.Vintilă and his brothers Ion and Dinu were the leaders of the National Liberal Party of Romania...
, the National Liberal Mayor of Bucharest, was in a conflict of interest
Conflict of interest
A conflict of interest occurs when an individual or organization is involved in multiple interests, one of which could possibly corrupt the motivation for an act in the other....
. The matter, which focused on how City Hall granted the contract for a new tramcar
Tramcar
The Tramcar is a trackless train service running on the Boardwalk in the Cape May County, New Jersey communities of Wildwood and North Wildwood. The service, which began on June 11, 1949, takes passengers along the two-mile long Wildwood boardwalk...
line, later exploded nationally as the "Tramcar Affair".
By January 1912, Fleva's relationship with the Conservative-Democrats had turned into hostility. He quit the party, which had by then allied itself to the National Liberals, noting that Ionescu no longer stood for the initial goals: updating the 1866 Constitution
1866 Constitution of Romania
The 1866 Constitution of Romania was the fundamental law that capped a period of nation-building in the Danubian Principalities, which had united in 1859. Drafted in a short time and using as its model the 1831 Constitution of Belgium, then considered Europe's most liberal, it was substantially...
and promoting land reform
Land reform in Romania
Four major land reforms have taken place in Romania: in 1864, 1921, 1945 and 1991. The first sought to undo the feudal structure that had persisted after the unification of the Danubian Principalities in 1859; the second, more drastic reform, tried to resolve lingering peasant discontent and create...
. A year later, a Conservative—Junimist—Conservative-Democratic alliance was in power, with Titu Maiorescu as Prime Minister. Fleva took to the dissident Conservative club of Grigore G. Cantacuzino, which published the gazette Seara
Seara (newspaper)
Seara was a daily newspaper published in Bucharest, Romania, before and during World War I. Owned by politician Grigore Gheorghe Cantacuzino and, through most of its existence, managed by the controversial Alexandru Bogdan-Piteşti, it was an unofficial and unorthodox tribune for the Conservative...
. This notoriously bawdy and violent paper was mounting a campaign against Interior Minister Alexandru Bădărău; Fleva joined in, with a claim that Bădărău was demented.
During those years, Fleva was also indulging his passion for horse racing. After 1905, when a replica of Longchamp Racecourse was eventually built in Bucharest (on grounds now occupied by Casa Presei Libere
Casa Presei Libere
Casa Presei Libere is a building in northern Bucharest, Romania, the tallest in the city between 1956 and 2007.A horse race track was built in 1905 on the future site of Casa Presei Libere...
), he became one of the regular visitors.
World War I controversies and death
Fleva was again a member of the Assembly in the 1914 legislature. Immediately after the start of World War IWorld War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, when Romania found itself in uncertain neutrality, he spoke from the Assembly rostrum as an advocate of the Entente Powers
Allies of World War I
The Entente Powers were the countries at war with the Central Powers during World War I. The members of the Triple Entente were the United Kingdom, France, and the Russian Empire; Italy entered the war on their side in 1915...
. At the time, he believed that fighting alongside the Entente, and therefore against Austria-Hungary, would guarantee Romania's integration of Transylvania and other irredenta: "our public, being a Latin people [...] could only have felt its interests as being at one with those of the Triple Entente [...]. We must not be looking on impassably to the fate of the Romanian nation in Transylvania, to how it is being torn asunder." A failure to answer this call, he claimed, would have made his "the least worthy of all generations".
As time progressed, Fleva became more sympathetic to the "Germanophile
Germanophile
A Germanophile is a person who is fond of German culture, German people, and Germany in general, exhibiting as it were German nationalism in spite of not being an ethnic German or a German citizen. Its opposite is Germanophobia...
" camp, which pushed for committing Romania to the Central Powers
Central Powers
The Central Powers were one of the two warring factions in World War I , composed of the German Empire, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Ottoman Empire, and the Kingdom of Bulgaria...
(see Romania in World War I). The same course was maintained by Seara, managed at that stage by a consortium of businessmen from the German Empire
German Empire
The German Empire refers to Germany during the "Second Reich" period from the unification of Germany and proclamation of Wilhelm I as German Emperor on 18 January 1871, to 1918, when it became a federal republic after defeat in World War I and the abdication of the Emperor, Wilhelm II.The German...
. Dimineaţa daily, which had anti-German and pro-Entente sentiments, reported with pleasure that the Germans could not convince Fleva to take over as Searas editorial manager; its claims were partly backed by Fleva's own note, published in Dreptatea (November-December 1914). Fleva reportedly received such offers from two German propagandists, Hilmar von dem Bussche-Haddenhausen and Josef B. Brociner, but did not provide an answer, and even threw Brociner out in the street. However, in October 1915, Fleva accepted to become "Political Director" of Libertatea ("Freedom"). Probably the second Germanophile tribune to be secretly financed by Searas Alexandru Bogdan-Piteşti
Alexandru Bogdan-Pitesti
Alexandru Bogdan-Piteşti was a Romanian Symbolist poet, essayist, and art and literary critic, who was also known as a journalist and left-wing political agitator. A wealthy landowner, he invested his fortune in patronage and art collecting, becoming one of the main local promoters of modern art,...
, it was edited by young activist writers Tudor Arghezi
Tudor Arghezi
Tudor Arghezi was a Romanian writer, best known for his contribution to poetry and children's literature. Born Ion N. Theodorescu in Bucharest , he explained that his pen name was related to Argesis, the Latin name for the Argeş River.-Early life:Along with Mihai Eminescu, Mateiu Caragiale, and...
and Gala Galaction
Gala Galaction
Gala Galaction was a Romanian Orthodox clergyman and theologian, writer, journalist, left-wing activist, as well as a political figure of the People's Republic of Romania...
. This sheet was mainly the voice of left-wing Germanophilia, maintaining that the need to enact social reforms was more important than any casus belli
Casus belli
is a Latin expression meaning the justification for acts of war. means "incident", "rupture" or indeed "case", while means bellic...
. Although he resigned only a month into his assignment, Fleva still published with it until Romania declared war on Germany
Treaty of Bucharest, 1916
The Treaty of Bucharest of 1916 was signed between Romania and the Entente Powers on 4 /17 August 1916 in Bucharest. The treaty stipulated the conditions under which Romania agreed to join the war on the side of the Entente, particularly territorial promises in Austro-Hungary...
.
From the pro-Entente camp, but also from among his own circles, accusations surfaced that Fleva had in fact become an agent of influence
Agent of influence
An agent of influence is a person whose political actions and arguments are alleged to serve the interests of a foreign power, and to be directed or manipulated by the intelligence agency of that power...
for the German Empire
German Empire
The German Empire refers to Germany during the "Second Reich" period from the unification of Germany and proclamation of Wilhelm I as German Emperor on 18 January 1871, to 1918, when it became a federal republic after defeat in World War I and the abdication of the Emperor, Wilhelm II.The German...
. The Germanophile figure Ion Bianu specifically noted that Fleva had received 100,000 lei
Romanian leu
The leu is the currency of Romania. It is subdivided into 100 bani . The name of the currency means "lion". On 1 July 2005, Romania underwent a currency reform, switching from the previous leu to a new leu . 1 RON is equal to 10,000 ROL...
from German intelligence before taking over at Libertatea (the information was probably backed by a 1916 official report, now lost, on the subversive activities of German oil investor Albert E. Günther). Such allegations remain unproven, and, to his admirers, Fleva endured the incorruptible politician.
Fleva survived the war and the Central Powers' two-year-long occupation of southern Romania. He died on August 4, 1920, either in Jideni (now part of Râmnicu Sărat) or in Focşani
Focsani
Focşani is the capital city of Vrancea County in Romania on the shores the Milcov river, in the historical region of Moldavia. It has a population of 101,854.-Geography:...
. He was by then noticeably poor, and largely forgotten by the general public.