In early 1926, the general was again named Premier, and approached the PNR and its close ally, the Peasants' Party, proposing a merger around his leadership.
Although not fascist itself, the new government he formed displayed gestures of friendship towards Benito Mussolini's Fascist Italy,[REF][REF][REF] a state which advertised itself as a rising force - The Nation called Averescu "Romania's Mussolini", as "an epithet which the new premier of Rumania bestowed upon himself" [REF].