Tămădău affair

The PCR victory in the 1946 general election was achieved mostly through the implementation of widespread electoral fraud[1] and was followed by the first attempts at anti-communist resistance, including the creation of a "military circle", led by Mihalache.

The offer to flee Romania was quickly discovered, as the government declared, or, as claimed by the journalist Victor Frunză, had already been investigated and, in the hope of discrediting the opposition party, partly facilitated by agents of Interior Minister Teohari Georgescu.

[7] Victor Frunză argued that "in democratic states" citizens should have an "unconditional right to a passport" to leave the country whenever they want and therefore the accusations of illegal border crossing, flight, and treason should not have been brought.

[10] Calls for a trial of the entire party were voiced by the Communist press (notably by Silviu Brucan), and Maniu himself, although not present at Tămădău, was argued to have planned the escape.

[10] Arrested while under treatment in a sanatorium,[11] Maniu later admitted to the fact and indicated that he was prepared to assume complete responsibility: [After Hațieganu's offer] I spoke to Mr. Mihalache, I specifically asked him to make use of this opportunity and he accepted.

Constantin Titel Petrescu, the leader of a splinter group of the Social Democratic Party, which had refused cooperation with the Communists, also came up during the trial and was later tried and convicted.

[20] The episode was soon after used against Romanian Foreign Minister Gheorghe Tătărescu, the leader of the National Liberal Party-Tătărescu (which was aligned with the Communists but had criticised several of their policies).

He was attacked by the PCR newspaper Scînteia for having allegedly failed to act against a pro-Maniu conspiracy inside his ministry, was unceremoniously demoted and was replaced by the Communist activist Ana Pauker.