*Cracks knuckles*
-on December 2, 1880, when Ion C Brătianu was just leaving the building of the Chamber of Deputies,Ivan Petraru, an official in the Ministry of Finance jumped on him with a knife with a blade 20 cm long, to attack him. Brătianu had the inspiration to hit him over the arm, turning the blow that targeted the neck area towards the thick coat that he used to wear in winter.
Him dying then would have left the Liberal Party in a different direction,probably with C.A Rosetti being PM,and agricultural and voting reforms happening earlier.
-during 1897 Ferdinand suffered of typhoid fever,with many believing that he’d die and that the Crown would need another appointee successor to the throne.
The person in question to take Nando’s place? Why,no other than Prince Luigi Amedeo, Duke of the Abruzzi,cousin to Victor Emmanuel III,Infante of Spain and best known for his Arctic and mountain expedition and the colonizing of Somaliland.
I’m not quite sure what he would do differently as King of Romania compared to Nando given that I don’t know much about his political views but it would be interesting to see him deal with the upheavals of the nation,especially during WW1.
-Ionel Brătianu was nearly shot dead in 1909 by a disgruntled railway employee,which would have not only changed the life of Romanian politics significantly (given how much of a schemer Bratianu was,the poor man’s Bismarck) but also could have caused massive riots against Bulgarians and other minorities due to the attacker being half Bulgarian,as well as how OTL a large influx of bigotry was caused by the event and a nationalist and anti socialist fever set the country aflame and in blind support of the Liberals,with many starting to think the assassination was just a ploy to weaken the newly formed trade unions. (Though there isn’t any real evidence to that,it just seemed plausible since Bratianu did shit like that all the time)
I got more but there’s a lot on the top of my head that I can think of so it’s gonna be two parter post.
-during an inspection of the frontlines on February 3 1917,Colonel Alexandru D Strudza,working for the Germans,pulled Ferdinand away from his entourage to “show” him the frontlines better and set him up for the German snipers hiding in the bushes to shot him,
only for Nando to constantly fuck their plans by moving too much and looking/picking some flowers that managed to survive winter.
He nearly did get shot btw which would have led to the very young Carol II being crowned as King and more turbulent times politically speaking-maybe even Averescu gets the guts and starts a dictatorship with young Carol‘s approval,starting a civil war after WW1 (Incidentally,that’s a project I’m working on so I’ll leave there for now,don’t want to spoil things)
-in 1934,a group of officers planned to assassinate Carol II for his playboy lifestyle and being too chummy with Lupeasca,organizing to attack/ “kidnap” the couple right as they were going to the Easter Sermon,launching grenades and open fire from the windows of the Boulevard Hotel on the royal convoy heading for the church. At the same time, the other participants in the plot were to attack the dignitaries already in the church, waiting for the royal procession.
The plot failed due to one of the members of the plot being an informant but it nearly could have worked had the head of the secret service,Morozov,had paid less attention or if the plotters were more careful.
The whole thing would have left Romania in chaos-the king dead,the PM and most of the government dead,the heir to the throne still being a minor,all the other adult heirs being banished before this-the list goes on.
And speaking of Lupeasca,
-in 1934-1935,some Iron Guard members nearly managed to wack Lupeasca,which would have led to Carol losing his shit and going full authoritarian four years early,maybe even starting the National Rebirth Front earlier
-pretty almost every opposition figure to Iliescu and FSN could have been easily killed by angry FSN supporters or by the miners during 1990,which I cannot state how bad that would have been.
-Sorin Ovidiu Vantu tried and failed during 2000-2001 to physically liquidate those he considered "guilty" of FNI-related media revelations,including the former head of SIE Catalin Harnagea,Dan Andronic (then director of
Curentul),and Petre Mihai Bacanu,editor in chief of
Romania Libera.
Needless to say,it would have been a
huge scandal,especially given how many connection Vantu had with nearly everyone in politics and media.
-just every encounter Isaia Faur had with every President of Romania,the guy is genuinely unstable and it’s really easy to see him trying to murder someone.