large crowds, which put the local lodging capacity under strain. After a long wait and repeated requests, Pop de Băsești and lieutenant Kiș were finally given an unheated room in the Hotel "Hungaria" (whose name was later changed to "Dacia"). They were later joined there by Pop de Băseşti's son-in-law Francisc Hossu-Longin, who was the representative of Deva in the Great National Assembly. On 1 December 1918, at Iuliu Maniu's proposal, Pop de Băsești was elected president of the Assembly. As a leading figure of the PNR he unified all the divergent currents in the Assembly and bridged the differences, his election as president ending all rivalries among the representatives. In his opening speech he emphasized that the Great National Assembly of all Romanians of Transylvania and the Banat was destined to obliterate the bondage of the past, ending with the following words: "Brethren, let yourselves be enthralled by the holy joy of this bright national feast and in the utmost brotherly harmony let us lay the foundation of our future happiness. God bless this assembly and its resolutions". On the same day the Assembly unanimously decreed the union between the Romanian Old Kingdom and Transylvania, the Banat, Crișana and Maramureș. The next day the Assembly established the () as the provisional parliament of Transylvania, and the () as the provisional government of Transylvania, electing Gheorghe Pop de Băsești as president of the High Council and Iuliu Maniu as president of the Directory Council. After closing the session of the High National Romanian Council, Pop de Băsești repeated the words attributed to Simeon: "Lord, now let your servant depart in peace", adding "as I have seen the salvation of my people". Death After spending a couple of days at his daughter's house in Deva and two night stops in Teiuș and Cluj (also not without incidents), on the way back from the Ulmeni railway station to his home in Băsești, on an icy weather, Pop de Băsești caught a severe cold that would confine him to bed. According to another source, his overnight stay in the unheated hotel room in Alba Iulia was another cause for him becoming ill. The prolonged illness caused his death a few months later on 23 February 1919, at the age of 83, after skirmishes of the initial stage of the Hungarian–Romanian War had been occurring in the neighboring villages of Stremț/Bükktótfalu and Odești/Vadafalva. Pop