Democratic Peasants' Party Partidul Țărănesc Democrat Demokratische Bauernpartei | |
|---|---|
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| President | Aurel Onciul (to 1918) Florea Lupu (1918–1919) |
| Founded | 1902 |
| Dissolved | 1919 |
| Merged into | National Romanian Party (1905–1908) Christian Social (National) Party (1908–1911) Democratic Union Party (1919) |
| Headquarters | Czernowitz, Duchy of Bukovina, Austria-Hungary |
| Newspaper | Privitorul (1902) Voința Poporului (1902) Foaia Poporului (1911) |
| Cultural wing | Dacia Society |
| Paramilitary wing | Arcași |
| Ideology | Economic nationalism (Romanian, Austrian) Left-wing populism National liberalism Agrarianism Economic antisemitism Anticlericalism United States of Greater Austria |
| Political position | Left-wing |
| National affiliation | Freisinnige Verband (1903–1904) Progressive Peasants' Fellowship (1904–1905) Romanian Club (1914–1918) |
| Colours | White Black, Yellow (Habsburg flag) |
| Slogan | Înainte, nimănui spre daună, tuturor spre bine ("Forward, with bad outcomes for none and good outcomes for all") A.E.I.O.U. |
The Democratic Peasants' Party (Romanian: Partidul Țărănesc Democrat, PȚD; German: Demokratische Bauernpartei; Ukrainian: Демократична селянська партія, Demokratychna selyans'ka partiya), also known as Democratic Party, Peasants' Party, National Democratic Party or Unirea Society, was a provincial party in Bukovina, Austria-Hungary, one of several groups claiming to represent the ethnic Romanians. It had a national liberal and left-wing populist agenda, and was mainly supported by "the peasants, the village teachers, and some of the intellectuals."[1] Its leader was Aurel Onciul, seconded by Florea Lupu, both of whom were adversaries of the conservative and elitist Romanian National People's Party (PNPR). Rejecting sectarianism, the PȚD combined Austrian and Romanian nationalism, as Onciul argued that Romanian aspirations could only be fulfilled inside the multi-ethnic empire. For this reason, and for its role in dividing the Romanian vote, the party was often accused of double-dealing.
In 1902–1905, the PȚD pursued an alliance policy with politicians from the other ethnic groups—including, most controversially, Ukrainian nationalists. This resulted in the creation of a Progressive Peasants' Fellowship, which dominated the Diet of Bukovina and, in 1904, passed an electoral reform project drafted by Benno Straucher. Ethnic rivalries pushed the group back into sectarian politics before the legislative elections of 1907. The PȚD embraced economic antisemitism and, together with the PNPR, merged into Christian Social Romanian Party in 1908. It continued to have an autonomous existence, with its elite controlling Bukovina's state bank and Raiffeisen credit union. Its business practices nearly drove Bukovina's economy into insolvency, turning other Romanians against Onciul.
The PȚD reemerged informally during the election of July 1911, and again formally in April 1914. At that stage, it embraced agrarianism and anticlericalism, while also reaffirming its loyalty to Austria and its opposition to the Kingdom of Romania. It became dormant a few months later, with the outbreak of World War I and the Russian offensive, during which party activists put up an inefficient paramilitary resistance.
Onciul continued to represent the PȚD in the Austrian House of Deputies to 1918, singular among his Romanian colleagues for endorsing a Romanian–Ukrainian partition of Bukovina. His cooperation with the Ukrainian Galician Army resulted in his and his party's disgrace, but the backlash contributed to Bukovina's incorporation with Greater Romania. Lupu assumed leadership of the PȚD in its final avatar, which ultimately merged with the Democratic Union Party in 1919. Its Arcași paramilitaries, reformed as a set of independent clubs, and later as an official organization of the Romanian state, were in near-continuous existence until 1944.
- ^ Cocuz, p. 310