Portfolio as of 16 December 1938 Individuals who did not join was: Iuliu Maniu (former Prime Minister 1928-1930, 1930, 1932-1933, PNȚ), Virgil Madgearu, Mihai Popovici, Grigore Iunian, Nicolae L. Lupu, Dinu Brătianu and Gheorghe I. Brătianu The conflict between Carol II and the Iron Guard became noted during the election of December 1937, when the monarch backed the National Liberal Party (PNL) of incumbent Premier Tătărescu, expecting it to carry the vote; in effect, the result was inconclusive, with none of the parties receiving enough of a percentage to be awarded a majority bonus, and with political rivalries preventing any single coalition.

[6] After an initial violent confrontation with the Iron Guard, Goga, assisted by the Polish envoy Mirosław Arciszewski, signed a pact with its leader Corneliu Zelea Codreanu (February 8, 1938), a move which threatened to topple Carol's original designs.

[16] As Carol witnessed the failure of European countries to defend themselves from Nazi German advances, consecrated by the Anschluss and the Munich Agreement, he met with Adolf Hitler at Berghof (November 24, 1938), and became convinced that Romania faced a similar fate.

[17] He subsequently ordered the Iron Guard, whom he perceived as a fifth column for the Germans,[18] to be decapitated: during the following days, Codreanu and the majority of top-ranking Guardists were assassinated, while secondary ones, led by Horia Sima, fled the country and took refuge in Germany, where they remained after the outbreak of World War II.

[22] In May 1939, the electoral law suffered drastic changes: the voting age was raised to 30, voters had to be literate and employed in one of three fields (agriculture and manual labor, commerce and industry, intellectual professions), and new, fewer precincts were drawn up (11 in all, standing for the 10 new ținuturi and Bucharest).

[29] Among the far right tendencies it absorbed was the small-scale fascist-inspired feminist and racist movement formed by Alexandrina Cantacuzino (Gruparea Națională a Femeilor Române, the National Grouping of Romanian Women).

[33] The Front's policies in respect to other ethnic minorities, as Călinescu reported, aimed to "show [the new regime's] benevolence to the foreign elements, as long as they are sincerely integrated in the life of the State".

[22] In one notable example, Carol chose to reestablish the seat held in Parliament by the Polish minority of Bukovina, and awarded it to Tytus Czerkawski — this followed intense campaigning from politicians and journalists in the Republic of Poland for Romania to review the centralist policies set by Ion Nistor in 1919.

[34] Notably, the FRN also incorporated much of the leftist tendency inside the PNȚ (Călinescu, Mihail Ghelmegeanu, Petre Andrei, Mihai Ralea, Cezar Petrescu), drawing on a Poporanist legacy,[9][29][35] while enlisting support from well-known socialists such as Gala Galaction,[29] Ioan Flueraș, and George Grigorovici.

[29][36] A minimum wage was imposed on private enterprises, while a body regulating leisure, Muncă și Voe Bună, was created on the model set by the Nazi Strength Through Joy and the Italian fascist Opera nazionale dopolavoro.

[29] While, arguably, most Romanian citizens accepted the new political context, the FRN had relatively few convinced cadres—its upper ranks were occupied by traditional politicians who were popularly associated with corruption and Carol's, and much of its membership comprised civil servants whose affiliation was mandatory.

[25] In January–February 1939, a conflict erupted between Carol and Nicolae Iorga, following the latter's refusal to wear the FRN uniform during public ceremony, and worsened by his protest against Constantin Rădulescu-Motru's proposal to have all Romanian Academy members join the Front.

Raise not your voice, or else a will spy betray you, a plain clothes man will arrest you, a gendarme or a butcher will beat you up savagely, and occasionally, in the Police cellars, your head will be crushed or put up against the wall.

[27] The political structure continued to be marked by rivalries between various politicians—according to Argetoianu, these opposed Tătărescu to the Royal Commissioner Victor Iamandi, as well as to a Transylvanian faction formed around Alexandru Vaida-Voevod (successor to the Romanian Front), and the latter grouping to the one around A. C. Cuza, emerged from the National Christian Party.

[40] In contrast with official ideology, Carol allowed other opposition parties to exist in all but on paper, kept contacts with them, and, in early 1940, had meetings with the PNL's Dinu Brătianu,[41] the PNȚ's Ion Mihalache, and the dissident left-winger Nicolae N. Lupu,[35] attempting to persuade each to merge their groupings with the FRN.

[41] According to the leading PNȚ member Ioan Hudiță, the Front continued to find sympathy inside his own party, and some of its figures (including Mihalache, Virgil Madgearu, and Mihai Popovici) allegedly considered affiliating with it.

[35] In parallel, several assassination attempts, ordered by Horia Sima from Germany, were foiled by Siguranța Statului before a death squad was able to murder Armand Călinescu, who had previously replaced Cristea as Premier, on September 21, 1939.

[50] At the same time, Romania began offering Germany a series of deals, hoping to dissuade its hostility: the latter received advantageous clearing agreements, while the Reichswerke joined Nicolae Malaxa in taking over the businesses of Max Auschnitt, who had been arrested in September.

[51] Eventually, as Germany completed its invasion of Poland and continued to voice support for Hungary in relation to Romanian-ruled Transylvania, Romania conceded to German economic demands (on March 7, 1940, the Gheorghe Tătărescu executive agreed to direct almost all cereal and oil exports towards Berlin).

[61] On August 30, 1940, Germany and Fascist Italy pressured Romania into signing the Second Vienna Award, which assigned Northern Transylvania to Hungary (which also brought the German military presence within hours of the oil fields in Prahova County).

[52] As Hungarian troops entered Northern Transylvania, Bucharest became the scene of massive public rallies, which called for the PN government to be replaced with one that would support the recovery of lost regions.

[65] Right after dealing with opposition inside his own camp (by marginalizing the radical faction of Ion Zelea Codreanu),[66] Sima issued calls for a violent reprisal against the former top FRN and PN politicians.

[67] On the night of November 26–27, 1940, sixty-four political prisoners were massacred in Jilava by Corpul Muncitoresc Legionar and Iron Guard affiliates in the Romanian Police (in theory, as reprisal for the killing of Corneliu Zelea Codreanu).

On the evening of November 27, Iron Guard members stormed into the houses of Nicolae Iorga and the PNȚ's Virgil Madgearu—the two were kidnapped and shot; earlier in the day, Army officials intervened to save the lives of former Premiers Constantin Argetoianu and Gheorghe Tătărescu.