Nicolae Fleva
Nicolae Fleva was a Wallachian, later Romanian 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 discontent, 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 the Conservative Minister of Agriculture. Involved as both accused and whistleblower in some corruption scandals of the early 20th century, he was sent as 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.
Biography
Origins and early career
The future politician was born in the Wallachian town of Râmnicu Sărat to a family of low-ranking boyars. He was a descendant of Greek settlers, who probably arrived to the Buzău region during the Phanariote era. He had a sister, Cleopatra, 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. 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 could speak 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, publicizing his motto: "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 race, representing the 4th Electoral College 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 for their roles in the "Republic of Ploiești" conspiracy—all of them, including liberal leaders Ion Brătianu, C. A. Rosetti, Eugeniu Carada and Anton I. Arion, were acquitted. Fleva, who rested his defense tactic on contending that Epureanu's men had incited and misled Romanian republicans, publicized his speeches in court as the 1871 booklet Procesul lui 8 august. Apărarea făcută celor 41 acusați. This was to be the first of several confrontations between Fleva and Carol, who even consider abdicating the throne after the verdict came out.
Fleva was again sent to the Assembly after the 1871 election, but this time represented Muscel County. His hold of the seat was contested by a rival politician, Potoceanu: in early 1875, just before the scheduled election the Assembly plenum ruled to remove Fleva from his position of deputy.
1875 arrest and the "Mazar Pașa" coalition
Subsequently, Fleva played a part in the effort to unite a single liberal opposition against the conservatism of Prime Minister Lascăr 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. Fleva was part of the Editorial Committee, which included almost all of the liberal leadership, and employed the young satirical journalist Ion Luca Caragiale as copy editor.Carried by Fleva's oratory and by exposés 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 Văcărești 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.
The 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. At this point in time, the liberal factions found support from Stephen "Mazar Pașa" Lakeman, who, as a loyal subject of the British Kingdom, may have intended to steer Romania away from its Austrian commitments. 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 1879.
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. With fellow deputy Pantazi Ghica, he organized a prolonged inquiry by Parliament into the activities of former ministers. From July to December 1876, his Informative Commission toured the country, verifying some 140 dossiers of secret correspondence, organizing house searches, and publishing a 964-pages report. He was at the time collecting support for a motion to sue Catargiu for damages, years after Catargiu had quelled the riots in Bucharest. Such initiatives embarrassed the more moderate liberals, outraged the conservative press, and were ultimately defeated in Parliament.
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's special commission investigated Maiorescu' malfeasance in office, following allegations made by the National Liberal Andrei Vizanti, and Fleva's vote helped clear Maiorescu of all charges. During those months, Fleva also participated in the heated debate about regulating wheat trade between Romania and the Russian Empire. Against the position held by Catargiu, and against voices from his own party, Fleva suggested that Russia's demand for most favored nation status was acceptable.
New-generation liberal and mayoral election
Fleva's term as deputy also coincided with historical events relating to the Russo-Turkish War and Romanian independence. 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 rather a preamble to the actual independence declaration of May 10.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. Also then, Fleva, Carada, Stătescu and other members of Rosetti's faction were elected officers of the "Citizens' Guard", a paramilitary organization. Their activity there was reported with alarm by the conservative gazette Timpul: "The city's Guard , following its earlier establishment as an armed force with commanders elected from within its own ranks, all of them improvised officers wearing insignia designed during times of revolution, officers with no military skill, no discipline and no title , not only does it not represent any sort of guaranteed safety, but, what is more, could always turn itself into a dangerous element of social upheaval."
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, 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 Chirițopol , 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.
The interval witnessed renewed republican agitation, during which Nicolae Fleva openly sided with revolutionary politics. In 1883, when members of his party hoped to obtain Carol's resignation, he instructed the public about the right of revolution. His speech was reviewed in 2012 by academic Codrin Liviu Cuțitaru as a classic misinterpretation of that principle, since it validated a permanent "state of revolt" among those who felt disenfranchised. 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. The team's focus was on the sanitation of Dâmbovița River, for which purpose Mayor Fleva contracted English engineer William Lindley. Upon inspection, Lindley advised against using Dâmbovița as a water supply, even as filters had been installed, and the project began to redirect water from further upstream.