20 Facts About Iuliu Maniu

Iuliu Maniu was a leader of the National Party of Transylvania and Banat before and after World War I, playing an important role in the Union of Transylvania with Romania.

Iuliu Maniu finished the Calvinist College in Zalau in 1890, and studied law at Franz Joseph University in Cluj-Napoca, then at the University of Budapest and the University of Vienna, being awarded the doctorate in 1896.

Iuliu Maniu joined the Romanian National Party of Transylvania and Banat, became a member of its collective leadership body in 1897, and represented it in the Budapest Parliament on several occasions.

Iuliu Maniu settled in Blaj, and served as a lawyer for the Greek Catholic Church.

Iuliu Maniu was influenced by the activity of Simion Barnutiu, a maternal uncle of his father, Ioan Iuliu Maniu.

Together with such figures as Vasile Goldis, Gheorghe Pop de Basesti, the Romanian Orthodox cleric Miron Cristea, and Alexandru Vaida-Voevod, Iuliu Maniu engaged in an intensive unionist campaign, leading to the Great National Assembly of Alba Iulia on 1 December 1918, during which Romanians demanded separation from Austria-Hungary.

Consequently, Iuliu Maniu refused to attend King Ferdinand's Crowning ceremony as King of Greater Romania, seeing it as an attempt to tie multi-religious Transylvania to Orthodoxy.

Iuliu Maniu showed himself open to deals proposed by Viscount Rothermere regarding a review of the Treaty of Trianon and, as King Ferdinand's death approached, started negotiations with the disinherited Prince Carol, proposing that the latter bypass the Constitution and crown himself in Alba Iulia.

In 1930, Iuliu Maniu manoeuvered against the Constitution, and, together with Gheorghe Mironescu, brought about Carol's return and deposition of his son Michael.

However, Carol did not respect the terms of his agreement with Iuliu Maniu, refusing to resume his marriage to Queen Elena.

Iuliu Maniu resigned for the third and final time on 13 January 1933, due to his ongoing conflict with King Carol.

In 1937, Iuliu Maniu agreed to sign an electoral pact with the Iron Guard's Corneliu Zelea Codreanu, in the hope that this would block the monarch's maneuvers.

The PNT survived in semi-clandestinity and, after Antonescu purged the Guard, achieved some unofficial status when Iuliu Maniu began holding talks with the general over several issues.

Iuliu Maniu remained an opponent of Antonescu, a view which he balanced with his adversity towards the Soviet Union, and joined the plotters of the pro-Allied royal coup of 23 August 1944, while expressing his resentment of the Romanian Communist Party involvement.

Subsequently, Iuliu Maniu was a prominent supporter of the Western Allies and one of the main adversaries of growing Soviet influence in Romania.

Iuliu Maniu's party became the predilect target of PCR hostility.

Iuliu Maniu has an enormous political following in the country and I believe the respect in which all Rumanians hold him eclipses that held for any other Rumanian.

Iuliu Maniu died in 1953 in Sighet Prison, and his body was thrown into the common grave in the courtyard.

On November 12,1998, the High Court of Cassation and Justice ordered the rehabilitation of Iuliu Maniu and removed the additional punishment of confiscation of property, pronounced in 1947.

Iuliu Maniu appears on two postage stamps emitted by Posta Romana, one from 1993 and one from 2018, both commemorating Great Union Day.