Lascăr Catargiu

Lascăr Catargiu

Lascar Catargiu ( pronunciation ^{? / I} * 1. November 1823 in Iasi , † March 30 ^{. Jul} / 11. April 1899 ^greg. In Bucharest ) was a Romanian politician and Prime Minister of the country.  

Life

Lascăr Catargiu was born in Iași in 1823 . He rose to the post of prefect of police in the city under the rule of the Moldovan prince Grigore Ghica . In 1857 he became a member of a Commission of Moldova that was elected under the Treaty of Paris (1856) to vote on the proposed unification of Moldova and the Principality of Wallachia (the Danube Principalities ). His strongly conservative views, especially on land reform, led the conservatives to endorse him as a candidate for the Romanian throne in 1859.

During the reign of Prince Alexandru Ioan Cuza (1859–1866) Catargiu was one of the opposition leaders and received a lot of support from his relative, Barbu Catargiu (* 1807), a well-known journalist and politician who was murdered in Bucharest in 1862. Lascăr Catargiu therefore took part in the so-called Outrageous Coalition , which overthrew Cuza, and with the support of Charles I became President of the Council of Ministers in May 1866. Since he saw himself as unable to cooperate with his liberal colleagues Ion C. Brătianu and Constantin Alexandru Rosetti , he resigned in July.

After eight further ministerial changes, which culminated in the anti-Jewish agitation of 1870/71, Catargiu was able to establish a stable conservative cabinet for the first time in Romanian history on March 11, 1871, which lasted until 1876. His policies, which rejected political violence and restored the popularity of the crown, were viewed by the liberals as unpatriotic and reactionary . An attempt to indict the entire Catargiu cabinet was not withdrawn until 1878.

Catargiu remained in the opposition until 1889 when he formed another cabinet that fell apart after seven months. In the cabinet of Ion Emanuel Florescu from March 1891 he occupied the same position; on November 27, 1891 he was again President of the Council until 1895. During this time he was responsible for several important reforms, particularly financial and economic. He died in Bucharest in 1899.

literature

• George Ciorănescu: Catargiu, Lascăr , in: Biographical Lexicon for the History of Southeast Europe. Vol. 1. Munich 1974, p. 295
• Catargiu, Lascar , in: Encyclopædia Britannica , 1911 (main source of this article)

Web links

Commons : Lascăr Catargiu  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• 150 de ani de la Unirea Principatelor Române jurnalul.ro (Romanian)