The National Peasant Party ( hu, Nemzeti Parasztpárt, NPP) 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 ...

between 1939 and 1949. It was led by the writer Péter Veres. The party was revived for a short time during the

Hungarian Revolution of 1956 The Hungarian Revolution of 1956 (23 October – 10 November 1956; hu, 1956-os forradalom), also known as the Hungarian Uprising, was a countrywide revolution against the government of the Hungarian People's Republic (1949–1989) and the Hunga ...

and after the end of communism in 1989–90.

History

The party was established in 1939, but was only formalised as an organisation on 19 September 1944.Vincent E McHale (1983) ''Political parties of Europe'', Greenwood Press, p507 It won 42 seats in the National Interim Assembly elections in 1944. By the following year it had 170,000 members,Mária Palasik (2011) ''Chess Game for Democracy: Hungary Between East and West, 1944-1947'', McGill-Queen's Press, p37 although it was reduced to 23 seats in the

parliamentary elections A general election is a political voting election where generally all or most members of a given political body are chosen. These are usually held for a nation, state, or territory's primary legislative body, and are different from by-elections ( ...

that year. However, the following year the party won 36 of the 411 seats in the

. For 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 ...

it ran as part of the

Communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, ...

-led Hungarian Independent People's Front, winning 39 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'', p931 The adoption of a new constitution in August 1949 saw the country 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 ...

, with the NPP being merged into the Communist-led Hungarian Working People's Party. Following the

, the party was revived under the name Petőfi Party and served in the short-lived new government. During the transition to democracy (1989–90), members of the Péter Veres Society re-established the party under the name Hungarian People's Party (MNP) on 11 June 1989 and participated in the Opposition Round Table Talks. The MNP had high hopes regarding the first democratic elections in 1990, however they received only 0.8% of the vote. After that the presidium took the name of Hungarian People's Party–National Peasant Party. Shortly before the 1994 parliamentary elections, two-thirds of the membership joined the National Democratic Alliance (NDSZ) led by Zoltán Bíró and Imre Pozsgay. The MNP–NPP was wiped out by the end of the decade.Múlt-kor (2009)
Magyar Néppárt a népi írók nyomdokain
'

Ideology

The party's main policy was land reform. It attracted support from the middle and lower classes in the countryside, as well as intellectuals in the provinces, and was most popular in eastern Hungary. It was sponsored by the

Communist Party A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of '' The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engel ...

, as the Communists could attract only small support amongst rural voters. Its supporter base was sympathizing 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 ...

, with some of its leaders, including Ferenc Erdei and József Darvas, being closet communists.Palasik, p38

Parliamentary representation

¹NPP was a member of the Communist-led Hungarian Independence People's Front (MFN). Hungary became a

after the 1949 election.

References

{{Authority control 1939 establishments in Hungary 1949 disestablishments in Hungary 1956 disestablishments in Hungary 1956 establishments in Hungary 1989 establishments in Hungary 1998 disestablishments in Hungary Agrarian parties in Hungary Defunct political parties in Hungary Hungarian Revolution of 1956 Political parties disestablished in 1949 Political parties disestablished in 1956 Political parties disestablished in 1998 Political parties established in 1939 Political parties established in 1956 Political parties established in 1989