Participarea organizației Partidului Național Român din județul Arad la alegerile parlamentare din noiembrie 1919 și iunie 1920
Participation of the organization of Romanian National Party from Arad county in the parlamentary elections of Novembe 1919 and June 1920

Summary/Abstract: In this study we aim to analyze the manner in which the first two electoral campaigns in Arad County took place, namely the participation of the Romanian National Party in Arad County in the parlamentary elections of November 1919 and June 1920, the first after the Great Union. We also aim to follow the evolution and activity of the P.N.R. Arad, during this period. The organization of the Romanian National Party in Arad County was one of the largest and most important. Its leaders were hardened in the national struggle. We mention here Vasile Goldiş, Ştefan Cicio‑Pop and Ioan Suciu, who had a significant role in achieving the national ideal.The parliamentary elections of November 1919 were won by the P.N.R., and it can be stated that, indeed, as Constantin Argetoianu said, 1919 was the year of the Transylvanians. Around P.N.R. the new parliamentary majority was to be formed and this whole party also gave the prime minister of the government. The P.N.R. Arad sent 6 senators and 14 deputies to the Romanian Parliament, being one of the largest organizations in Transylvania. Unfortunately, this first Romanian parliament and government after 1918 had a short existence. On March 12, 1920, the president of the Peasant Party, Ion Mihalache, resigned from the government because his agrarian bill, which was voted on by Parliament, was rejected by King Ferdinand. Only one day after Mihalache’s resignation, the king signs the decree appointing General Alexandru Averescu as president of the Council of Ministers. On March 25, 1920, Prime Minister Alexandru Averescu announced from the rostrum of the Parliament his dissolution and the organization of new elections, in order to obtain a parliamentary majority. The electoral confrontation in Transylvania and Banat, in these elections, can be characterized as a hard fight between the Averescu administration bodies, which wanted to consolidate their positions and the PNR candidates, who did not want to lose the political monopoly they held here even before 1918. From the analysis of the election results it can be seen that P.N.R. he lost from his electorate in the counties of Timiş‑Torontal and Arad, where he obtained only one mandate. The great loser of the parliamentary elections of June 1920 can be considered the leader of Arad, Vasile Goldiș, who lost the elections both to the Chamber of Deputies and those for a senator’s mandate, in front of the nationalist A.C. Cuza, precisely in the city of Arad, his electoral stronghold.In conclusion, it can be stated that the period 1919–1920 was a politically fragmented one. There are also some differences in the parliamentary elections of November 1919 and June 1920. If at the first P.N.R. held the political monopoly in Transylvania, in those of 1920 a division of the electorate can be observed. Now the parties from the old Kingdom are also entering Transylvania, more strongly. Although the 1920 elections were won at the national level by the ruling party, many P.N.R. organizations, including the one analyzed in this study, remained electoral strongholds of this great historical Transylvanian party.

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