connected to Anti-Semitic movements in Germany, and made himself known by supporting a Jewish quota in higher education (a demand which created a standoff with the government during a nationalist students' strike in 1923). From 1921, the swastika became the distinctive symbol of Cuza's movement, appearing in its publications, booklets and electoral programs. Cuza claimed priority and a purely Romanian character for this symbol, without in any way referring to the circulation of the swastika in Germany. The swastika is linked to the cult of the sun. It appears in the countries inhabited by the Pelasgic race, which we find from the very beginning in our lands. In general, the swastika is the distinctive sign of the Aryan race, signs were found on our soil… Being here since ancient times, the swastika therefore is, in the first place, ours, Romanian by its descent from the Thracian Aryans… The swastika is our national emblem. The cross is the emblem of our faith, just as it is with all Christian peoples. It is only together that the Swastika and the Cross display our entire being, our body and soul. We are Aryans and Christians. Cuza's movement took shape in the same year, when it transformed into the "violently anti-Semitic" National-Christian Defense League with the help of young Corneliu Zelea Codreanu (already a good friend of Cuza's). The purpose of the National Christian Defense League was "to fight with all legal means in order to support economic, political and social interests against the Jews". Cuza was fiercely opposed to the Minorities Treaty which finally forced Romania to grant citizenship to the Jews in 1923. It was after 1923 that Cuza abandoned his support for universal manhood suffrage as he stated that allowing Jews the right to vote was unacceptable. Cuza stated that the solution to the "Jewish Question" was to "remove them from the country, after a transitional stage during which their influence on Romanian life would be eliminated". The steps Cuza advocated were in the "transitional stage" prior to expulsion were disemancipation, forbidding Jews to work in the public sector, separate schools for Jewish children and forbidding all Jews to live in the countryside. Unlike Codreanu, Cuza rejected violence and wanted to use only legal means. Cuza's refusal to turn the movement into a militia alienated Codreanu: in late 1927, after several attempts at imposing his line, Codreanu left in order to