Századok – 2012

TANULMÁNY - Gábori Kovács József: A centralisták szerepe az ellenzék egységesítésében III/563

A CENTRALISTÁK SZEREPE AZ ELLENZÉK EGYSÉGESÍTÉSÉBEN 607 THE ROLE OF THE CENTRALISTS IN THE UNIFICATION OF THE OPPOSITION József Gábori Kovács József (Abstract) The study aims at uncovering the political strategy pursued by the centralists from June 1844 until March 1846. The main goal of this strategy was to make the whole political opposition adopt the centralist ideas, which at first seemed attainable through dispute in the press. Yet, in contrast to what is maintained by the historical literature, the change of the political situation moved the centralists from early in 1845 towards a compromise with that wing of the reformist opposition which defended the county system. While arguing for the turn, Eötvös and his companions leant to a great extent upon the statements of Bertalan Szemere, who was close to them in terms of both ideas and personality, and who for the first time openly declared the necessity for the opposition to unite in his speech held after the completion of his parliamentary work on 9 January 1845. During the spring and summer of 1845 a similar conversation took place between the centralist Pesti Hirlap and the municipalist Erdélyi Hiradó on the necessity and possibilities of uniting the opposition. Yet it ended with failure, for none of the parties was willing to give up the slightest ground. Consequently, in November 1845 the centralists, upon the advice of Eötvös, modified their strategy, and offerred room on the pages of the Pesti Hírlap for the municipalists in order to prove their honest intentions. They opined that finally the municipalists would realise that they were not to be blamed for Kossuth's having lost the Pesti Hírlap, and that they would write into it and eventually come to adopt the centralist ideas which the paper publicised. As a result, the compromise between the two oppositional groups was established in November 1845. The editor of the centralist newspaper, Antal Csengeiy, published on 1 January 1846 a joint oppositional program, in which he promised that his group would at least temporarily stop to propagate the idea of centralisation. The new tactics applied by the centralists apparently worked well, for the congress of the opposition held in February 1846 renegotiated the case of the Pesti Hírlap, and the conditions it set for the centralists were much more moderate than the ones stipulated previously. At the same time the municipalist leaders decided to write into the centralist paper and to persuade their comrades of ideas to do the same. Thus, from February 1846 the municipalists wholeheartedly supported the Pesti Hírlap. This was true even if only a handful among them did in fact write into the paper consequently. Eötvös did succeed in directing the affairs from November 1845 until February 1846 despite the fact that it was the municipalists who felt that the compromise was rather more favourable for them. Yet the practical implementation of the plan elaborated by Eötvös was the work of Antal Csengery, who thus also played an important role in uniting the opposition and making the centralist ideas generally accepted. As a result, within less than a year the centralists were in a position to resume the propagation of their ideas in the Pesti Hírlap.