was Finance Minister and later Interior Minister in the second Averescu government of 1920. In March 1921, it was uncovered that an associate of his named Aron Schuller had attempted to contract a 20 million lire loan with a bank in Italy, using as collateral Romanian war bonds that he had illegally obtained from the Finance Ministry reserve. Argetoianu, who was still in charge at the time, became the target of attacks from the opposition group formed by the Romanian National Party and the Peasants' Party, being pressed by Virgil Madgearu and Grigore Iunian to explain himself (Iunian proposed a motion of no confidence, but the PNL continued to show its support for the PP). Clash with Communism and split with Averescu Argetoianu soon became noted for his anti-communist stance: he carried out arrests of those Socialist Party members who, during their party's congress in May 1921, supported a maximalist platform and voted in favor of aligning their Socialist-Communist faction (future Communist Party of Romania) with the Comintern, citing the latter's condemnation of Greater Romania; all those arrested were prosecuted in the Dealul Spirii Trial. Argetoianu later stated that the arrest lacked legal grounds, and indicated that he purposely gave the Socialist Gheorghe Cristescu approval to hold the congress as a means to incriminate the faction. Faced with mixed reactions inside the cabinet (Averescu hesitated, while the Minister of Justice Grigore Trancu-Iași refused to give him support), he ordered the move without his fellow ministers' prior knowledge, and thus faced them with a fait accompli. The standoff between Averescu and the parliamentary opposition eventually witnessed a decisive incident: during a prolonged debate over Averescu's proposal to nationalize enterprises in Reșița, Argetoianu addressed a mumbled insult to Madgearu; the PNL, seeing an opportunity for a return to power, expressed sympathy, and all opposition groups appealed to King Ferdinand, asking for Averescu's recall (July 14, 1921). Despite Averescu's eventual defeat in December 1921, Argetoianu was kept in office by the Take Ionescu and Brătianu cabinets. During the spring of 1922, he ordered the killing of several Communist activists who were held in prison custody, including Leonte Filipescu, staging their attempts to flee from under escort as a pretext. Nevertheless, pressures on the revolutionary grouping were relaxed in summer, when King Ferdinand approved an amnesty and Argetoianu officially declared that "communism is over in Romania". PND and PNL In 1923, after Brătianu again