Gheorghe Pop de Băsești () or George Pop de Băsești (), also known under the nickname Badea Gheorghe or Badea George (roughly Brother or Uncle Gheorghe/George) (1 August 1835 – 23 February 1919) was an Imperial Austrian-born Romanian politician, philanthropist and patriot, who served as vice president (1881–1902) and president (1902–1919) of the Romanian National Party at a time when Transylvania was part of the Kingdom of Hungary within Austria-Hungary, and eventually as the president of the Great National Assembly of Alba Iulia that declared the Union of Transylvania with Romania on 1 December 1918. Early life Gheorghe Pop de Băsești was born on 1 August 1835 in the village of Szilágyillésfalva/Băsești (Transylvania, Austrian Empire), as the son of Petru Pop de Băsești and Susana Pop de Turț, both members of the local gentry. He completed the gymnasium in Nagybánya/Baia Mare (the first 6 grades) and in Nagyvárad/Oradea (the last 2 grades of the gymnasium), before moving on to study Law at the Nagyvárad Academy. After graduating from the Oradea Academy in 1859, Pop de Băsești found a clerk's job, but shortly after he was conscripted in the Austrian Imperial Army and participated in the Second Italian War of Independence (1859–1860). In 1860, after he had been released from the active service, Pop de Băsești returned to his native county, where he worked as first praetor in Hadad/Hodod and as a judge. In 1860, he married Maria Loșonți, with whom he had 2 children: Maria Carolina (who died at the age of 1 on 16 January 1862) and Elena (1862–1940). According to a source, Maria Loșonți, the widow of the Baron Sebeși, had had with Pop de Băsești in 1859 another daughter out of wedlock, Ana, before they married one year later. Political activity Deputy in the Diet of Hungary On 22 June 1872, Pop de Băsești was elected for the first time deputy in the Hungarian diet in the Szilágycseh electoral district, where, for the following nine years (he was again elected in 1875 and 1878), he advocated for the rights of ethnic Romanians living in Transylvania. In that capacity Pop de Băsești protested vehemently against the consequences of the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867 and the Magyarization conducted via the education laws of 1868 and 1879, the Nationalities Law, the Electoral and Press laws, comparing the status of the Romanians in the Kingdom of Hungary with that of the