Századok – 2011

TANULMÁNYOK - Soós László: Khuen-Héderváry Károly kormányalakítása és a politikai válság felszámolására tett kísérlete első lemondásáig III/603

KHUEN-HÉDERVÁRY KÁROLY KORMÁNYALAKÍTÁSA 635 KÁROLY KHUEN-HÉDERVÁRY'S FORMATION OF HIS GOVERNMENT AND HIS EFFORTS AT ENDING THE POLITICAL CRISIS UNTIL HIS FIRST RESIGNATION (27 June 1903 - 10 August 1903) by László Soós (Summary) At the elections of 1901 the Liberal (Szabadelvű) Party had obtained a considerable majority, and prime minister Kálmán Széli formed a government. He faced the greatest difficulty on 16 October 1902, when the minister of defence, Géza Fejérváry, tabled a bill in the House of Representatives about the conscription of 20 thousand reservists. Against this proposal of the minister of defence, the opposition, led by the Party of Independence, launched an endless obstruction under the slogan of „no more soldiers without the introduction of Hungarian as the language of service and command". In the face of opposition, which paralysed the work of the parliament, the Széli government proved impotent, and so on 23 May 1903 Francis Joseph I authorised Károly Khuen-Héderváry, ban of Croatia, to initiate negotiations among the Hungarian politicians about the prospects of forming a new government. The ban, who had no immediate knowledge of the political conditions at Budapest, briefly acquainted himself with the situation and resigned his commission as he saw his situation utterly hopeless. Consequently, the ruler asked István Tisza on 16 June to agree as future prime minister with the politicians of the Liberal Party about the composition of the government. But the members of the governing party, fearing that Tisza would eventually break down the obstruction with violent means, refused to assume the ministerial posts offered to them one after the another. After the failure of Tisza's effort to form a government, the ruler withdrew the commission of Kálmán Széli and asked Khuen-Héderváry to initiate negotiations in a wider circle than before about the formation of his government at Budapest. As a result, Khuen-Héderváry made an agreement with the leaders of the Party of Independence, promising them that in return for ending the obstruction he would drop the proposition of Fejérváry and would only table a bill for enlisting the regular yearly number of recruits. Yet the Khuen-Héderváry government, which was appointed on 27 June 1903, realised already at the time of its introduction at parliament that a great part of the opposition representatives would continue their obstruction, which made parliamentary work impossible. The situation of the prime minister further deteriorated after the session of parliament on 29 July, when representatives of the Party of Independence announced that László Szapáry, governor of Fiume, who belonged to the friends of Khuen-Héderváry, had tried to bribe oppositional representatives into suspending their obstruction. Although no direct evidence was found against the prme minister in the case of bribery, the ensuing scandal made even those oppositional representatives return to the camp of obstruction who had so far respected their agreement with Khuen-Héderváry. The latter, who saw no way out of the crisis, handed in his resignation, which was accepted by the ruler on 7 August. Three days later the parliament took cognizance of the government's leave.