Early political activity (1993–2017)
Mihail Neamțu joined the Christian Democratic National Peasants' Party (PNȚCD) in 1993 aged 15. In an article published in a Sibiu magazine in 1994, Neamțu wrote favourably of Romanian fascist politician Corneliu Zelea Codreanu (1899–1938), praising the Iron Guard as "a spiritual school" for "the restoration of the Romanian soul". In his 2007 book Zeitgeist, Neamțu renounces his comments as "infantile paragraphs" written from "historical and sentimental ignorance". In 2003, Neamțu criticised the Bucharest Mosque project, rebuking it as an attempt by Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to segment influence in the country. From 2010 until 15 September 2011, Neamțu served as scientific director at the Institute for the Investigation of Communist Crimes and the Memory of the Romanian Exile. In 2006, he criticised the reactions of Muslim countries to the Danish Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy.
Until founding the New Republic party in October 2011, Neamțu remained only politically affiliated with PNȚCD, although he in 2012 said that he "being of the school of Corneliu Coposu and Ion Rațiu" did not "commit the sin of trailism" during his time in the party. On moving from the academic to the political field, Neamțu stated:
[...] it was a great challenge to descend among the people, as an intellectual, and to discover that I was limited. Thus, I went from the luxury of journalistic reading to the risk of political commitmentIn May 2012, Neamțu interviewed British politician Daniel Hannan of the Conservative Party on the European Union and Margaret Thatcher. By mid-July 2012, Neamțu had become actively involved in supporting incumbent president Traian Băsescu, campaigning against his impeachment in 2012 presidential impeachment referendum held on 29 July and blaming the constitutional crisis on prime minister Victor Ponta. In the end, 88.7 per cent voted in favour of impeachment, with the vote failing to pass due to low turnout. During an event for the launch of the Right Romania Alliance (ARD) electoral alliance on 12 November 2012, Neamțu recited the poem Arise Gheorghe, Arise Ioan by Romanian fascist poet Radu Gyr, which led other ARD leaders to distance themselves from Neamțu's remarks. Neamțu defended himself, stating that his intention by reciting the poem had been to honour victims of the Nazi Holocaust and Soviet Gulags.
In the 2012 parliamentary election on 9 December, he ran as an ARD candidate for the Chamber of Deputies in Arad County, securing, with 30.2 percent of the vote, second place in the county's first district, failing to be elected. The ARD was affiliated with the European Conservatives and Reformists Group. In March 2014, Neamțu along with philosopher Gabriel Liiceanu took part in a rally against the television stations owned by politician and businessman Dan Voiculescu following critical comments by Antena 3 hosts Mihai Gâdea and Mugur Ciuvică against writer Andrei Pleșu. Neamțu ran unsuccessfully as ARD's lead candidate for the 2014 European Parliament election in Romania on 25 May. On 16 March 2015, Neamțu resigned as chairman of the ARD. After this, he took a break from public life.
