Soós László (szerk.): Magyar Minisztertanácsi jegyzőkönyvek 1867-1918. A Khuen-Héderváry és a Tisza kormány minisztertanácsi jegyzőkönyvei - A Magyar Országos Levéltár kiadványai, II. Forráskiadványok 56. (Budapest, 2018)
2. kötet - Idegennyelvű összefoglalók
IDEGENNYELVŰ ÖSSZEFOGLALÓK Summary The Government of Count Károly Khuen-Héderváry The Liberal Party gained a significant parliamentary majority during the elections in 1901. For Kálmán Széli, who formed his government from the members of this party, the biggest challenge occurred when the Minister of Defence, Géza Fejérváry, in order to increase the number of soldiers in the army, presented a bill to the Flouse of Parliament on 16th October 1902, and aimed to enlist 20 thousand replacement reservists. The opposition, led by the Party of Independence, started a never-ending obstruction against his proposal with the slogan „there is no increase in the number of soldiers, without introducing the Hungarian language as the language of command and service”. The Széli government proved to be helpless against this obstruction that counteracted the work of the Parliament, and as a consequence, Franz Joseph I, Emperor of Austria, authorised Count Károly Khuen-Héderváry, Croatian Ban, on 23rd May 1903, to negotiate about the possibility of a new government formation in Hungarian political circles. The Croatian Ban, who only had limited knowledge about the political power relations in Budapest, after a short evaluation of the situation, declared the situation hopeless, and resigned from his assignment of forming a government. On 16th June 1903, the Monarch commissioned Count István Tisza as the future Prime Minister, to negotiate with the leading politicians of the Liberal Party about the composition of the would-be government. All members of the government party declined the offered ministerial posts, since they feared that István Tisza would use violent measures in order to break up the obstruction. After the unsuccessful government forming of Tisza, the Monarch assigned Károly Khuen-Héderváry to negotiate in Budapest, in a wider circle than previously. Khuen-Héderváry came to an agreement with the leading politicians of the Party of Independence, that he would stop trying to increase the number of soldiers, and would present the bill only for the usual number of soldiers, if in return the obstruction would be ended. The Khuen-Héderváry government was appointed on 27th June 1903, and immediately after its presentation in the Houses of Parliament, it faced the fact that a significant part of the oppositionists still continued the obstruction and made the parliamentary work impossible. The Prime Minister’s situation worsened when on 29th July 1903, the representatives of the Party of Independence announced that Count László Szapáry, Governor of Fiume, who belonged to the circles of Khuen-Héderváry, tried to corrupt oppositionists to cease their offensive remarks in the parliament. Despite the fact that no direct proof has been revealed against the Prime Minister in the bribery scandal, the oppositionists who earlier held the agreement with Khuen-Héderváry, went back to supporting the obstruction. On 7th August 1903, the Monarch accepted the 819
