From 1898, he began issuing the French-language newspaper "La Roumanie", through which he publicized his own program, commonly referred to as "Takism". At the time, contrary to the more cautious policies of his party, he began voicing full support for incorporating Transylvania, a region largely inhabited by Romanians and ruled by Austria-Hungary, into the Kingdom of Romania; he even made a symbolic conquest by financing the building of a road in the vicinity of Buşteni, on the Transleithanian side of the border. Initially, he welcomed the idea of Romania itself entering the Habsburg Monarchy in a federalist project ("see United States of Greater Austria"), as a means to solve the nationality issue, but eventually came to oppose it; in a conversation with the PNL's Constantin Stere, who continued to support the idea, Ionescu declared: "instead of a foreign minister in Vienna, if Romania should join the Habsburgs, I would rather become a waiter in Chicago!".