Ságvári Ágnes (szerk.): Budapest. The History of a Capital (Budapest, 1975)
Budapest in the Inter-War Period (1919-1945)
Minister—had a permanent absolute majority in Parliament. But in the Budapest Municipality the Government Party had no direct representation until the second half of the twenties, and only towards 1940 was it able to vindicate its claim of “one party—one leader” in the capital city as well; in 1938 the Christian Municipal Party, which up to that time had taken a somewhat different political line from the Government, surrendered its independence and merged with the Government Party. The destruction of the relative independence of the Budapest Municipality was also the aim of the laws on municipal organization. The Municipal Act (XVIII of 1930), introduced by the government of Count István Bethlen, reduced the number of elected members of the Municipal General Assembly by one hundred, and thus transferred its powers—similar to those of Parliament—to nominated officials. From that time the Lord Mayor of Budapest could only be elected from among the candidates nominated by the Regent. The second Municipal Act (XII of 1934), introduced by the government of Gyula Gömbös, entirely abolished the election of the Lord Mayor, who from that time was nominated by the Regent; it further reduced the number of elected members by a third and forbade the General Assembly to discuss political questions. Although these Acts still maintained the secrecy of vote in Budapest, voting qualifications (education, tax, time of residence, etc.) were raised beyond those in force for government elections. The defence of municipal autonomy against the Government thus developed into the broader movement for the defence of political rights. The Social Democratic and Liberal opposition led the struggle, but since government domination also harmed the interests of the majority party in the capital, to a certain extent they also supported the campaign (Association for the Protection of the Constitution, in 1934). Budapest in the Second World War In the 1930s a general political shift to the right took place all over Europe. In Hungary the process developed into an active danger between 1935 and 1940, and came to a height in the period of the Second World War. A symptom of the shift to the right was the advance of the national socialist parties. These managed to exploit the social discontent of the politically unschooled masses and acquired relatively great influence in Budapest in certain municipal enterprises (BSZKRT) as well. Following the 1939 Parliamentary elections the Arrow-Cross Party became the strongest opposition party in Parliament, whole-heartedly adopting the policies of Nazi Germany, and carrying on an anti-Semitic campaign even more blatant than the anti- Semitism of the “White Terror” in 1919. The celebrations and public events of 1938 arranged with much pomp (the Thirty- Fourth World Eucharistic Congress; the ninth centenary of the death of King (Saint) Stephen I, founder of the Hungarian state; the World Scout Jamboree) and the wave of prosperity consequent on the preparations for war, could not obliterate the shadow of war cast over the last year of peace. Although the Hungarian ruling classes did not support the programme of the Arrow- Cross Party, and would have preferred to maintain some sort of independence and detach-55