With the Soviet occupation, the staff of the Romanian Communist Party, which counted only a few thousand members during the coup of Michael I, exploded and demonstrations against the government of Constantin Sănătescu multiplied. At the same time, acts of sabotage were occurring all over the country, preventing the Romanian economy from recovering. Faced with the combined pressures of the representative of the Soviet Union, Andrey Vyshinsky, and the People's Democratic Front (offshoot of the Communist Party), the king needed to build a new government and named Nicolae Rădescu as the new Prime Minister (7 December 1944). Nevertheless, the situation remained tense in the country and when the new head of the government called for municipal elections on 15 March 1945, the Soviet Union resumed its destabilizing operations in order to impose a government of their liking. The refusal of the United States and United Kingdom to intervene on his behalf led the sovereign to consider abdication but he abandoned the idea on the advice of representatives of the two major democratic political forces, Dinu Brătianu and Iuliu Maniu. On 6 March 1945 Michael I finally called Petru Groza, leader of the Ploughmen's Front, as the new head of a government which had no association with any representative of either the Peasants and the Liberal parties.