On 30 November 1918 Pop de Băsești, elected as a representative and accompanied by lieutenant Alexandru Kiș of the Romanian National Guard, set off by train to Alba Iulia, despite his old age. The trip was not without incident: in the Războieni railway station their railcar was fired upon by the Hungarian National Guard, killing . However, according to other sources, Ioan Arion, the 24-year old representative of Agriș, was killed in the Teiuș railway station. After he had arrived in Alba Iulia, on a blistering cold day, the monk Leon Manu asked him: "For the love of God, Brother George, how could you venture to make such a long and exhausting journey on such weather?", to which Pop de Băsești replied: "How could I have missed it since I've been waiting for this day for 80 years? I came even if I should pay with my life for this, because now nothing else remains for me to say but the following, like the righteous Simeon of the Gospels: 'Lord, now let your servant depart in peace'". The event in Alba Iulia attracted large crowds, which put the local lodging capacity under strain. After a long wait and repeated requests, Pop de Băsești and lieutenant Kiș were finally given an unheated room in the Hotel "Hungaria" (whose name was later changed to "Dacia"). They were later joined there by Pop de Băseşti's son-in-law Francisc Hossu-Longin, who was the representative of Deva in the National Assembly. On 1 December 1918, at Iuliu Maniu's proposal, Pop de Băsești was elected president of the Assembly. As a leading figure of the PNR he unified all the divergent currents in the Assembly and bridged the differences, his election as president ending all rivalries among the representatives. In his opening speech he emphasized that the National Assembly of all Romanians of Transylvania and the Banat was destined to obliterate the bondage of the past, ending with the following words: "Brethren, let yourselves be enthralled by the holy joy of this bright national feast and in the utmost brotherly harmony let us lay the foundation of our future happiness. God bless this assembly and its resolutions". On the same day the Assembly unanimously decreed the union between the Romanian Old Kingdom and Transylvania, the Banat, Crișana and Maramureș.