Meanwhile, he was involved in nationalist politics, supporting Alexandru Averescu, Nicolae Iorga and, ultimately, the extremist Iron Guard, of which he was among the most prominent intellectual backers. A theoretician of organicism, corporatism, and antisemitism, he inspired the creation of "Iconar", a literary society, and founded the review "Însemnări Sociologice". He was elected to the Romanian Senate in 1937, and reached the apex of his political career during the short-lived National Legionary State of 1940–1941. He served as Education and Arts Minister under this regime, targeting the country's Jewish community and his various political opponents. In the wake of the Legionnaires' rebellion, he was arrested, tried and acquitted, but later arrested again and interned.