Ion Mihalache
Ion Mihalache (Romanian pronunciation: [iˈon mihaˈlake]; March 3, 1882 – March 1963) was a Romanian agrarian politician, the founder and leader of the Peasants' Party (PȚ) and a main figure of its successor, the National Peasants' Party (PNȚ).
Early life
A schoolteacher born into a peasant family of Topoloveni, he served as a lieutenant in the Romanian Army during World War I. Mihalache, who soon became popular among Orthodox priests and village teachers, served as president of the local teachers' association.
He founded the PȚ in the Romanian Old Kingdom in 1918; under his leadership, it emerged from northern Muntenia and became a grouping with national appeal. The PȚ had much success in the elections of November 1919, forming a coalition government with the Transylvanian Romanian National Party (PNR), under Alexandru Vaida-Voevod. As a politician, Mihalache made himself known for supporting a political option that mixed traditionalist reserve towards industrialization and calls for preserving the rural base of Romanian economy through voluntary cooperative farming (allowing for a peasant-based industry) with a vision of left-wing Corporatism. In 1929, he wrote:
