advance his own interests against their own. The Romanian constitution gave the king fairly broad powers, and the tendency of the Crown to favor the National Liberals who usually won elections by rigging them was a key factor in keeping the National Liberals in power despite the party's unpopularity. The National Liberals had a very clientistic style of ruling, engaging in patronage, graft and corruption, though the National Liberals did respect the wishes of the voters in the few elections that they proved unable to rig, handing over power after losing the 1928 election. Știrbey's role in having Carol excluded from the succession in 1925 after he refused to give up Madame Lupescu caused Carol to have a grudge against both him and the National Liberals, whom he vowed to "destroy". Under the guise of maintaining the social order, the National Liberals had passed laws which gave the police sweeping authoritarian powers and weakened civil rights; as the king had the power to name police prefects, such laws placed the king in a strong position to create a dictatorship if he so desired. The National Liberals had failed to provide for any constitutional checks on the powers of the monarchy, and instead used "extra-constitutional" checks such as Știrbey's relationship with Queen Marie. During a moment of political crisis caused by a dispute between the National Peasant Party vs. the National Liberals, Știrbey was appointed prime minister to head a "national union" government by King Ferdinand on 4 June 1927 when Brătianu proved unacceptable to the majority of the deputies. Știrbey stayed in office for only two weeks before he resigned in favor of his brother-in-law Brătianu. When King Ferdinand died on 20 July 1927, he was succeeded by his grandson who came to the throne as King Michael. The death of Ferdinand marked the end of Știrbey's time as the "grey eminence" of Romanian politics as a regency council governed for the boy king Michael. After Carol returned from his exile and became king in 1930 as Carol II, deposing his own son, King Michael, he started to use the vast powers of the monarchy to harass Știrbey in various ways. In 1934, Carol banished Știrbey from Romania, causing him to go into exile in Switzerland. In 1938, when Marie was dying, Carol refused permission to allow Știrbey to return, leading him to write her a letter in French saying: