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Unity Party (Hungary)

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Unity Party
Egységes Párt
LeaderIstván Bethlen (1922–1932)
Gyula Gömbös (1932–1936)
Béla Imrédy (1938–1939)
Miklós Kállay (1942–1944)
FounderIstván Bethlen
Founded2 February 1922 (1922-02-02)
Dissolved23 March 1944 (1944-03-23)
Merger ofKNEP (partial) and OKGFP
HeadquartersBudapest, Hungary
Ideology
Political position1922–1932:
Right-wing[4]
1932–1944:
Far-right
Party flag

The Unity Party (Hungarian: Egységes Párt), officially the Catholic-Protestant Farmers, Smallholders, and Civic Party or Christian Farmers, Smallholders and Civic Party (Hungarian: Keresztény-Keresztyén Földmíves-, Kisgazda- és Polgári Párt), was the ruling party of Kingdom of Hungary from 1922 to 1944.

It was founded in early 1922, and in the same year they won a electoral landslide in the parliamentary election.[5] Initially, the party was conservative and agrarian but in the early 1930s its fascist faction grew to become the largest, and shortly after they established a militia.[6] The main leader of the fascist faction was Gyula Gömbös, who served as the prime minister from 1932 to 1936.[7] When he came to power, the party was renamed to National Unity Party (Hungarian: Nemzeti Egység Pártja).

Gömbös declared the party's intention to achieve "total control of the nation's social life".[8] In the 1935 Hungarian Election, Gömbös promoted the creation of a "unitary Hungarian nation with no class distinctions".[9] The party won a huge majority of the seats of the Hungarian parliament in the Hungarian election of May 1939.[10] It won 72 percent of the parliament's seats and won 49 percent of the popular vote in the election.[11] This was a major breakthrough for the far-right in Hungary.[11] The party promoted nationalist propaganda and some of its members sympathized with the Nazi Arrow Cross Party.[11] In 1939, the party was renamed to the Party of Hungarian Life (Hungarian: Magyar Élet Pártja).

It was also called "the Government Party" since it was the governing party of the Kingdom of Hungary during the existence of the Horthy era.[7] A faction of the most pro-Nazi members led by the party's former leader Béla Imrédy split from the party October 1940 to form the Party of Hungarian Renewal [Wikidata] (Magyar Megújulás Pártja) that sought to explicitly "solve" the "Jewish Problem."

Electoral results

[edit]
Election Votes Seats Rank Government Leader
# % ±pp # +/−
1922 623,201 38.2% Increase38.2
140 / 245
Increase 140 1st Unity Party István Bethlen
1926 482,086 42.2% Increase4.0
161 / 245
Increase 21 1st Unity Party István Bethlen
1931 603,576 40.0% Decrease2.2
149 / 245
Decrease 12 1st Unity Party István Bethlen
1935 879,474 44.6% Increase4.6
164 / 245
Increase 15 1st Party of National Unity Gyula Gömbös
1939 1,824,573 49.5% Increase4.9
181 / 260
Increase 17 1st Party of Hungarian Life Pál Teleki

References

[edit]
  1. ^ Stanley G. Payne. A history of fascism, 1914-1945. Oxon, England, UK: Routledge, 2005. pp. 269.
  2. ^ Miklós Lackó. "Arrow-cross men, national socialists, 1935-1944", Studia historica, Magyar Tudományos Akadémia. Volume 61. Akadémiai Kiadó, 1969. Pp. 65.
  3. ^ Häkkinen, Ville (2019). From Counterrevolution to Consolidation?. JYU. p. 99.
  4. ^ Sthttps://mult-kor.hu/ki-volt-grof-bethlen-istvan-miniszterelnok-20161005
  5. ^ Gregory Curtis Ference. Chronology of 20th-century eastern European history. Gale Research, Inc., 1994. Pp. 226.
  6. ^ Philip Morgan. Fascism in Europe, 1919-1945. London, England, UK: Routledge, 2003. Pp. 76-77.
  7. ^ a b Payne, Stanley G. (1996). A History of Fascism, 1914-1945. Routledge. ISBN 0203501322.
  8. ^ Philip Morgan. Fascism in Europe, 1919-1945. London, England, UK: Routledge, 2003. Pp. 76.
  9. ^ F. L. Carsten. The rise of fascism. Berkeley and Los Angeles, California, USA: University of California Press, 1982. Pp. 173.
  10. ^ Peter F. Sugar, Péter Hanák. A History of Hungary. First paperback edition. Bloomington, Indiana, USA: Indiana University Press, 1994. Pp. 341.
  11. ^ a b c Georgi Karasimeonov. Cleavages, parties, and voters: studies from Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Romania. Greenwood Publishing Group, 1999. p. 70.