National Popular Party (Union of Patriots) Partidul Național Popular (Uniunea Patrioților) | |
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| President | Gheorghe Vlădescu-Răcoasa (ca. 1943; 1946–1949) Dumitru Bagdasar (1943–1946) Mitiță Constantinescu (1946) Petre Constantinescu-Iași (1949) |
| Founded | 1942 |
| Dissolved | 1949 |
| Headquarters | Crângului Street 15, Bucharest (to 1944) Spătarului Street, Bucharest (after 1944) |
| Newspaper | România Liberă (1943–1944) Tribuna Poporului (1944–1946) Națiunea (1946–1949) |
| Military wing | Patriotic Combat Formations (FLP) |
| Religious wing | Union of Democratic Priests (UPD) |
| Ideology | Big tent Antifascism Left-wing populism Left-wing nationalism (Romanian) |
| Political position | Centre-left to far-left |
| National affiliation | Patriotic Antihitlerite Front (1943) National-Democratic Coalition (1944) National Democratic Front (1944) Bloc of Democratic Parties (1946) People's Democratic Front (1948) |
The National Popular Party (Romanian: Partidul Național Popular, PNP) was an antifascist political party in Romania, founded during World War II as the underground Union of Patriots (Uniunea Patrioților, UP). The latter had defined itself as a spontaneous movement of resistance to the dictatorial regime of Ion Antonescu, but was largely known as a front for the illegal Romanian Communist Party (PCdR, later PCR). Its founders—Dumitru Bagdasar, Gheorghe Vlădescu-Răcoasa, Simion Stoilow—were closely cooperating with PCdR men, but also with liberal opposition forces. Repressed by the authorities, the UP made a comeback after the pro-Allied August 23 Coup of 1944, when it endured as a small ally of the communists—mostly controlled directly by them, but sometimes rebellious.
Defining itself as a party for the middle classes, the PNP sought to attract into its ranks both nationalists and ethnic minorities, and was used by the Communist Party as a means of weakening the traditional parties. From 1945, it registered its most significant successes among the repenting fascists, absorbing into its ranks former members of the Iron Guard. The UP and PNP were instrumental in helping the PCR reach some of its main objectives, including the overthrow of Nicolae Rădescu and the hastening of land reform.
The PNP was nominally loyal to King Michael I, but had no longer a part to play in decision-making when Michael was overthrown on the closing days of 1947. The party itself survived the 1948 election, but was dissolved by its leaders in early 1949, reportedly under pressure from the new government. Its former activists were either integrated into the structures of the communist state or repressed and, in some cases, imprisoned by the latter.