The Independent Hungarian Democratic Party ( hu, Független Magyar Demokrata Párt, FMDP) was a political party in
Hungary
Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Cr ...
in the period after
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
. The party was revived after the end of communism in 1989–90, but remained unsuccessful.
History
The party was founded on 20 July 1947, shortly before the
election
An election is a formal group decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold public office.
Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy has operat ...
that year. Its leader was
István Balogh, a Roman Catholic cleric, who, prior that, resigned as Secretary-General of the
Independent Smallholders, Agrarian Workers and Civic Party
The Independent Smallholders, Agrarian Workers and Civic Party ( hu, Független Kisgazda-, Földmunkás- és Polgári Párt), known mostly by its acronym FKgP or its shortened form Independent Smallholders' Party ( hu, Független Kisgazdapárt), ...
(FKGP) and quit the party along with his supporters (e.g. journalist
György Parragi) on 3 July 1947. The Communists led by
Mátyás Rákosi
Mátyás Rákosi (; born Mátyás Rosenfeld; 9 March 1892
– 5 February 1971) was a Hungarian communis ...
allowed for FMDP to contest the 1947 election for the purpose of weakening the FKGP, Balogh and Rákosi had several meetings on that subject. Ex-
National Peasant Party (NPP) politician Imre Kovács also joined the FMDP on 15 August 1947. In the 1947 parliamentary election, held on 31 August, the FMDP won 18 of the 411 seats in Parliament.
Dieter Nohlen
Dieter Nohlen (born 6 November 1939) is a German academic and political scientist. He currently holds the position of Emeritus Professor of Political Science in the Faculty of Economic and Social Sciences of the University of Heidelberg. An exp ...
& Philip Stöver (2010) ''Elections in Europe: A data handbook'', p. 931.
The FMDP focused on the interests of urban middle class and intellectuals in
Budapest
Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population o ...
, it barely had rural party organizations and branches. The party's short-lived youth wing was the Independent Hungarian Youth, led by
Sándor Győriványi. The party supported the creation of bourgeois democracy while opposed the Soviet-type economic model, according to its programme. Despite this, the FMDP was the only opposition party which voted in favor of the Communists' three-year plan, nevertheless it rejected the nationalization of banks. Balogh's party found itself in a political vacuum, as the
Left Bloc considered it as a rival in acquisition of laborers' votes, while the anti-Communist
Hungarian Independence Party
The Hungarian Independence Party ( hu, Magyar Függetlenségi Párt, MFP) was a political party in Hungary in the period after World War II.
History
The party was founded in 1947, shortly before the August elections that year. Led by Zoltán Pf ...
(MFP) and
Democratic People's Party (DNP) refused to cooperate with Balogh due to his collaborative relationship with the
Hungarian Communist Party
The Hungarian Communist Party ( hu, Magyar Kommunista Párt, abbr. MKP), known earlier as the Party of Communists in Hungary ( hu, Kommunisták Magyarországi Pártja, abbr. KMP), was a communist party in Hungary that existed during the interwar ...
(MKP) and its leader Rákosi. After the election, the MKP and the
Hungarian Social Democratic Party
The Social Democratic Party of Hungary ( hu, Magyarországi Szociáldemokrata Párt, MSZDP) is a social democratic political party in Hungary. Historically, the party was dissolved during the occupation of Hungary by Nazi Germany (1944–1945) ...
(MSZDP) prevented that the FMDP merged into the FKGP. Its relation with the
Roman Catholic Church in Hungary also became frosty, because the FMDP did not speak out against the nationalization of parochial schools.
Prior to the
1949 elections
The following elections occurred in the year 1949.
Previous: List of elections in 1948
Next: List of elections in 1949
Asia Afghanistan
* 1949 Afghan parliamentary election
Iran
* 1949 Iranian Senate elections
Israel
* 1949 Israeli legisl ...
the FMDP was forced to join the Communist-led Hungarian Independent People's Front (MFNF). The Front ran a single list chosen by the
Hungarian Working People's Party (MDP), with FMDP members winning 10 seats.
[ Following the elections the party ceased to function, although was not officially dissolved.][ István Balogh resigned from his parliamentary seat on 8 June 1951.
]
Re-establishment
The FMDP was revived in Budapest on 5 May 1989, after the end of communism in 1989–90, but remained an unsuccessful extra-parliamentary organization. During its first congress, István Neff, godson of the late Balogh, was elected leader of the party. In May 1990, he was replaced by journalist and sports official Gyula Kovár. The FMDP did not participate in the Hungarian Round Table Talks The Hungarian Round Table Talks ( hu, Kerekasztal-tárgyalások) were a series of formalized, orderly and highly legalisticBartlett, p.143 discussions held in Budapest, Hungary in the summer and autumn of 1989, inspired by the Polish model, that en ...
, it became only an observer at the National Round Table Talks after 10 June 1989. The party, along with the Transylvanian Alliance, the National Alliance of Hungarian Political Prisoners (Pofosz) and the re-founded MFP, protested against this decision by sending a joint petition to Speaker
Speaker may refer to:
Society and politics
* Speaker (politics), the presiding officer in a legislative assembly
* Public speaker, one who gives a speech or lecture
* A person producing speech: the producer of a given utterance, especially:
** In ...
Mátyás Szűrös, ineffectively. On 22 November 1989, the FMDP, alongside independent MPs and other re-established "historic" parties, expressed its support to the reform-Communist government of Miklós Németh and did not support the dissolution of the parliament.
On 8 December 1989, the FMDP, maintaining its independence, joined the National Alliance of Centre Parties (CPNSZ) to contest in coordination with the other participating parties (MFP, MRP and SZDP) in the 1990 parliamentary election. The FMDP received 0.06 percent of the regional votes, gaining no seats.Dieter Nohlen
Dieter Nohlen (born 6 November 1939) is a German academic and political scientist. He currently holds the position of Emeritus Professor of Political Science in the Faculty of Economic and Social Sciences of the University of Heidelberg. An exp ...
& Philip Stöver (2010) ''Elections in Europe: A data handbook'', p. 899. In May 1993, MP Imre Kőrösi, who was expelled from the Hungarian Democratic Forum
The Hungarian Democratic Forum ( hu, Magyar Demokrata Fórum, MDF) was a centre-right political party in Hungary. It had a Hungarian nationalist, national-conservative, Christian-democratic ideology. The party was represented continuously in the ...
(MDF), joined the FMDP, providing parliamentary representation for his new party. With Kőrösi's role as deputy leader, the FMDP became more active, however despite this, it received only 0.04 percent of the votes in the 1994 parliamentary election.[ After the failure, Kőrösi left the party.
Before the 1998 parliamentary election, the FMDP joined the alliance ]Union for Hungary
Union commonly refers to:
* Trade union, an organization of workers
* Union (set theory), in mathematics, a fundamental operation on sets
Union may also refer to:
Arts and entertainment
Music
* Union (band), an American rock group
** '' ...
(EMU), Kovár also appeared in the alliance's national list. The EMU gained 0.19 percent of the votes.[ In the 2002 parliamentary election, the FMDP only had one candidate in Budapest who obtained 531 votes.][ The party did not participate in the next two elections, as a result it was dissolved on 28 January 2011.
]
Parliamentary representation
1FMDP was a member of the Communist-led Hungarian Independence People's Front (MFN). Hungary became a one-party state
A one-party state, single-party state, one-party system, or single-party system is a type of sovereign state in which only one political party has the right to form the government, usually based on the existing constitution. All other partie ...
after the 1949 election.
References
Sources
*
{{Hungarian political parties
Defunct political parties in Hungary
Political parties established in 1947
Political parties disestablished in 1949
Political parties established in 1989
Political parties disestablished in 2011
1947 establishments in Hungary
1949 disestablishments in Hungary
1989 establishments in Hungary
2011 disestablishments in Hungary
Centrist parties in Hungary