then renounced his claim to the Romanian throne. As recalled by Radu Rosetti, Sturdza spoke very favorably of Carol, and spent time vacationing with him in Sinaia. During one such outing, Sturdza sought to impress local peasants by pummeling a rock into small pieces—his performance was not appreciated by the monarch, who found it to be in bad taste. Carol was again in Iași in October 1875, with Sturdza as his host. Tensions between the various "White" factions became evident during the elections of that year, which Catargiu lost to the consolidated "Red" opposition, or National Liberal Party (PNL). Sturdza and his associate Ceaur-Aslan voiced their displeasure when Junimea was co-opted by Catargiu to strengthen "White" chapters in Moldavia; however, Sturdza agreed not to run in the 3rd College at Iași, leaving it to be contested by the Junimist Petre P. Carp, and instead ran for the 4th College at Fălciu. As noted by Stan, the subsequent conflict between Carp and Sturdza prevented the "Whites" from forming a unified caucus that would compete with the PNL. In February 1876, ahead of government-mandated repeat elections, the Beizadea made a public show of his anti-Junimism, also breaking with Catargiu to present himself as an independent candidate in Iași's 2nd College. By 1878, both Sturdza and Kogălniceanu had set up independent groups that competed for the Moldavian vote. The Beizadea was Chairman of the Moldavian Conservative-Liberal Party, while his Lunéville colleague presided upon a Moderate Liberal Party. The two groups formed an alliance for the local elections at Iași, in November 1878. National-Democratic leader Sturdza adopted controversial stances during the Romanian War of Independence, which saw Romania aligned with Russia against the Ottomans. In order to obtain recognition for its separation from the Ottoman realm, Romania had to consider emancipating its non-Orthodox residents; and enduring controversy focused on the extend of Jewish emancipation. Sturdza sided with Conservative Generals Gheorghe Manu and Ion Emanuel Florescu. They proposed that naturalization could only be fast-tracked in individual cases, and with an Assembly supermajority. Upon the end of the war in 1878, Romanians were faced with a Russian demand to relinquish southern Bessarabia, in exchange for Northern Dobruja. Nationalists were generally indignant, and Carol threatened to abdicate during February 1878; as reported by Politische Correspondenz, this suited Russia, which had Sturdza as its favorite candidate for the throne. The issue was settled in Romania's detriment by the