A Móra Ferenc Múzeum Évkönyve 2014., Új folyam 1. (Szeged, 2014)

TÖRTÉNETTUDOMÁNY - Sípos József: Az Egységes Párt szervezése és 1922-es tavaszi kampánya

József Sipos

Organization of the United Party and its 1922 Campaign

Organization of the United Party and its 1922 Campaign

József Sipos

On 24 January, 1922, the Christian Smallholders’ and Agricultural-Workers’ Party included the adjective 'Civic' in its name. At the same time it clearly defined the conceptual-political principals which were to be followed by those who joined the party. Consequently, on 2nd February Count István Bethlen, Prime Minister and his followers, the so called ‘dissidents', together with other politicians joined the Christian Smallholders’, Agricultural-Workers’ and Civic Party, in short the United Party. Bethlen became the party leader, István Nagyatádi Szabó, agrarian politician was elected president, Gyula Gömbös, racist politician, was elected executive vice-president. The newly formed party became the governing party of the Horthy-Era in Hungary between the two world wars, impossible to replace.

The first part of present study throws light upon how the party was organized in the spring of 1922, also discussing that the party was not formed solely by the local organizations of the former Smallholders’ Party, neither solely by the candidates, but also by paid electioneer- ers in approximately 200-210 election districts out of the 245. This resulted in the formation of

one united popular party with both active local organizations, and influential leaders on higher levels of administration.

In the second part of the study Bethlen’s campaign speech delivered on 30 April is analysed: he pointed out that the United Party did not represent only one social stratum, but it was a party with Christianity as its base, and it welcomed representatives of any social groups and denominations among its members. The United Party was mostly supported by smallholders, thus by producer farmers. It was led, however, by the ‘intelligentsia’, i.e. by the historical aristocracy and the genteel middleclass. The United Party promised ‘national democracy’, which did not mean the power of the mass, but a democracy controlled by Christian morality.

In the third part of the study the national executive board, the election mechanism and the centralization process of the United Party are discussed. The centralization process took place on 4 May, when the Executive Board with numerous members handed over its power to a four-member management, including István Bethlen, István Nagyatádi Szabó, Count Kuno Klebeisberg and Gyula Gömbös.

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