Party of Free Change

The PLS began existence shortly after the December 1989 revolution, which toppled the communist regime and restored multiparty democracy. It was founded by editorial cartoonist Octavian Andronic, with a manifesto published on February 6, 1990 in Libertatea daily; literary critic Ștefan Cazimir adhered "by phone" on February 7.[2][3] The name was adapted from Ion Luca Caragiale's comedy O scrisoare pierdută (1884), which Andronic had just watched on Romanian Television, in the Liviu Ciulei adaptation.[3] In the original text, it already appears as a double entendre: one of the key characters, Nae Cațavencu, declares himself liber schimbist, technically "a supporter of free trade", but this can also be read as "easy changer"—one who changes views or convictions easily, without scruples.[1][3] One of the main principles of the party was granting the status of honorary membership to anyone who changed their allegiance from one political party to another.[1]

Cazimir, often mistaken as the party founder,[2][4] had had a political involvement with the Romanian Communist Party and, earlier, the Union of Communist Youth, to which he adhered c. 1949.[5] In December, he had been caught up in the revolutionary events, first as an unwilling participant in the communist counter-manifestation, then as a supporter of the street movement in Bucharest.[3] Overall, the new enterprise was entirely built on his deadpan humor (for which he was already famous)[5] and his deep familiarity with Caragiale's work—he was recognized as a Caragiale expert since the 1960s.[2][6] During January, Cazimir pondered entering politics as an independent, promising his constituents to "read out from Caragiale as often as possible".[3] Another founding member, Mircea Cornișteanu, produced and directed Caragiale plays, and is described as one of Caragiale's "feverish admirers".[7]

Due to its literary pedigree leading back to the 1880s, the PLS called itself an "historic party".[1] Tributes for the writer extended into other areas of party activity: the PLS motto was Caragiale e cu noi! ("Caragiale is with us!");[1] its hymn ended with another paraphrase from O scrisoare...: Trădare fie, dar s-o știm și noi! ("Let's have betrayal, but let's be aware of it!").[3][5] Its official tribune, founded by Andronic[3] and called Răcnetul Carpaților ("The Roar of the Carpathians", after Cațavencu's fictional gazette), ran fragments from Caragiale's political satire as genuine political news and commentary.[8] Reviving Cațavencu's rhetoric, perceived enemies of the party where addressed as reprobabili ("detestable people"), and allies as venerabili or stimabili ("venerable" or "esteemed people").[1][3]

The PLS organizing conference took place on February 18 at the People's Art College, on Cosmonauților Street, Bucharest. It was here that Cazimir was made president, with Andronic's blessing—the latter, being chief editor of the independent Libertatea, did not wish to become politically involved.[3] Under Cazimir, the party would not declare its ideology, but parodied serious parties for their quick adoption of "centrism". In this context, it declared itself a party "on the outer edge", because "two cannot be at the center without stifling or crushing each other. Plus, one can get a better perspective from the edge".[3] However, Cazimir claimed, its platform only ever stood out from that of serious groups "in being grammatically correct". While "most other groups cultivate unwitting humor", PLS statutes endorsed "witting humor".[3] This also meant that the PLS "is militating for a reduction of Caragiale's applicability to the present day. This applicability is however endorsed by the other political forces."[9]

Soon after its official registration on March 1,[3][9] the PLS was invited by the governing National Salvation Front (FSN) to join Romania's temporary legislature, or Provisional National Unity Council (CPUN). Its one seat there was taken by Cazimir.[10] He remained critical of the FSN and its leader Ion Iliescu, establishing contacts with the Golaniad protest movement (named after golani, "hoodlums", the word used by Iliescu to describe his opponents). As he noted in an April 1990 interview with academic George Pruteanu, he considered himself a "veteran hoodlum" (golan veteran), and suggested that the anti-FSN movement was "too numerous not to be taken into account" (Cazimir's emphasis); according to Pruteanu's marginal comments, part of this statement may have been sarcastic.[9] Also then, Cazimir stated that he was not opposed to the Proclamation of Timișoara, which had asked for the lustration of high-ranking communists, and which the FSN was formally opposing. As he put it, the PLS statues contained a similar provision, barring "people who have held high-ranking central- or local-level positions between January 1, 1980 and December 22, 1989" from applying as members; the same provisions forbade people "compromised by their active support for the former regime", as well as those "lacking in sense of humor" from joining the PLS.[9]

With Cazimir as president, seconded by Gheorghe Boșman, the party held its first congress at Cervantes High School, Bucharest, shortly before the May 1990 general elections.[1] The PLS benefited from the liberal electoral law of that period, which required registrations to have only 251 signatures. Politician and scholar Cristian Preda places the PLS in a category of ephemeral groups created in that interval, alongside a Romanian Democratic Popular Realist Revolutionary Party and a Party of Heroes Killed for the Freedom of Living Heroes Maimed by the Barbarian Bullets.[6] Unlike these highly localized projects, the PLS ran candidates in 26 precincts, and formed small but active county organizations—according to Cazimir, these were mostly run by divorcée ladies.[1]

The PLS received around 0.3% of the vote in both the Chamber of Deputies and Senate elections. Although it failed to win any senatorial mandates, it took a single seat in the Chamber,[11] which went to Cazimir. In his early speeches at Cervantes, Cazimir had joked that they only ran in elections "because I was tired of things going smooth."[1] In his Pruteanu interview, he noted being serious about capturing the vote: "our main effort at the present time is not the recruitment of new members, but the earning of electoral sympathies and trust. Once we will win the votes, we will also bring in new members."[9] Cazimir used his speaking time in Chamber mainly to popularize the sayings of Caragiale and Ion Creangă, as well as his own epigrams. At times, he also expressed mild criticism of the FSN as the party of "dead roses", and commented negatively on the June 1990 Mineriad, braving threats of violence from the Front's working-class electorate.[1]

Various commentators see the PLS as a tool for the FSN's alleged plan to stifle or ridicule serious opposition. In November 1991, columnist Cornel Nistorescu proposed that Cazimir may have taken his seat through electoral fraud carried out by the FSN, and that his activity was meant to glamorize political apathy; this view was endorsed by the staff writers at România Literară, who called Cazimir and his followers the "humorless humorists".[12] Also at România Literară, columnist Alex. Ștefănescu, a member of the opposition National Peasants' Party (PNȚCD), saw it as a "sociological oddity" that "a parody of a party was taken seriously by the voters".[13] Journalist George Baltac believes that the PLS "deliberately" helped the FSN to fragment the PNȚCD's voting weight with "an explosion of minuscule parties." He notes that Cazimir, as a "left-wing intellectual", had a personal relationship with Iliescu.[14] In a 2006 piece, writer Cătălin Mihuleac described the PLS doctrines as an "idiotic jest" (hlizeala idioată), arguing that Caragiale would have never approved of it; he described Cazimir and his group as a toxic influence on Romanian politics.[4] Likewise, commentator Andrei Manolescu argues that "[Cazimir's] humor and irony turned into actual opportunism."[10]

Although the legislation updated in 1992 provided an election threshold, which harmed its chances,[1] the PLS continued to be active, and staged high-profile stunts. In one such event, its delegation to Brussels made Manneken Pis an honorary party member.[1] The party also contested the February 1992 elections for local councils: it fielded 75 candidates for the General Council of Bucharest (the maximum allowed by law) and endorsed Tudor Popescu as its candidate for Mayor.[15] In the end, it elected several councilors throughout the country, and only one at Bucharest.[1] Successful candidates at Iași included physician René Corneliu Duda.[16]

Cazimir defected to Iliescu's Social Democratic Party (PSD) later that year,[1][5][17] and in the elections of September the party's vote share fell to 0.1%, resulting in it losing its single seat in Chamber.[18] Writing in 1999, Ștefănescu suggested that Cazimir had failed to explain his own defection: "at some point he dropped his joking with the PLS and transferred toward [the PSD], a party that has led Romania into a position which is not at all joyful."[13] Interviewed in 2010, Cazimir explained that his entry into the PSD was a continuation of PLS goals.[1] Many other members of the PLS were similarly recruited by the PSD. They included councilor Duda, whose son, Radu Duda, married Margareta of Romania and became titular royal consort of Romania; this paradox was highlighted in the press, which commented on the PSD's staunch republicanism.[16]

The PLS–PSD continuity was highlighted by journalist Dumitru Tinu, who attended the PSD conference of January 1997, where he reported hearing Cazimir "free-changing clowning" (clovnerii liber-schimbiste), played out in front of a new public.[4] Both Pruteanu and Cazimir were elected as PSD parliamentarians in November 2000, but found themselves taking opposite sides on issues such as linguistic protectionism. In discussing the issue, Pruteanu noted that Cazimir was still flippant, a man of derizoriu liber-schimbist ("paltry free-change").[19] A rump PLS had continued to exist for part of that interval. Cornișteanu, who succeeded Cazimir as ad-interim president, argues that he had "betrayed" the party statues, and notes that he was consequently listed as an "abandoned member".[17] The group was ultimately disbanded in 1996 when new rules required that any party should have at least 10,000 members,[1][6] or, according to Cornișteanu, when it could no longer support itself financially.[17] Despite publishing a history of the party in 1998, when he was referred to as its "ex-president",[13] Cazimir viewed the PLS as undissolvable. According to him, it still technically existed by 2010, because its own statutory clauses encouraged all members to join other parties.[1]