Baják László Ihász István: The Hungarian National Museum History Exhibition Guide 4 - The short century of survival (1900-1990) (Budapest, 2008)

Room 20. The Rise and Fall of Communism (1945-1990). István Ihász

height of his popularity, should be elected prior to the forthcoming elections, because afterwards he would not be in the running. The referendum left the task to the national assembly by a margin of 50.07%. In the spring of 1990, in the first free parliamentary elections for decades, the opposition parties won a sweeping victory: of these, the Hungarian Democratic Forum, the Christian Democrats and the Independent Smallholders' Party formed a right-of-centre coalition government. The successor party of reformist communists from the old regime (the Hungarian Socialist Party) was forced into opposition, together with the two new civic radical-liberal parties (the Alliance of Free Democrats and the Federation of Young Democrats). On May 8, 1990, at the first plenary sitting of the new parliament, the 1956 revolution and October 23 were declared national holidays. Árpád Göncz (Free Democrat) became the President of the Republic, József Antall (HDF) the Prime Minister and György Szabad (HDF) the Speaker of the House. A new state had been formed, one created by "fundamental laws" as had been the Compromise of 1867. Yet it was forced along a particular path by peculiar historic circumstances: while in the István Orosz: (poster without caption) The fateful disintegration of the political, economic and ethical system is dynamically portrayed as the Stalinist coat-of-arms, which from 1957 had continued to survive in its modified form, smashes into pieces. Behind the grey plaster shards looms up the old-new symbol of Hungary, the Kossuth crest with the royal crown, which in this new form was ratified by the new parliament in 1990