Századok – 2001

TANULMÁNYOK - Hámori Péter: Kísérlet a visszacsatolt felvidéki területek társadalmi és szociális integrálására. A Magyar a Magyarért Mozgalom története (1938-1940) III/569

624 HÁMORI PÉTER provided a set of arguments with the help of which the necessary reforms could be postponed for almost twenty years. In 1938 Southern Slovakia (the former Upper Hungary) was reunited to Hungary. The economy of the territory was then in a state of désintégration. Besides the strictly economic problems another source of concern for the Hungarian government was the system of social welfare which had been developed in Czechoslovakia, for many of its elements corresponded to much higher standards than what then existed in Hungary. The government of prime minister Béla Imrédy could choose between two solutions: either to expand the Hungarian legal system without modification to the newly recovered territories, or reshape the whole social policy in a way to make it able for a rapid transformation of Hungarian society in general. Since the latter solution proved impossible to carry out because of the resistance of the ruling liberal-conservative majority in the Parliament, the movement called „Hungarians for Hungarians" was launched in order to raise funds. For the use of the money thus collected a social network was created, whose activity was not limited to the elaboration of the means of direct help. Parallel to the new movement of „Hungarians for Hungarians" prime minister Imrédy tried to obtain a general authorisation for the government in order to initiate the large-scale economic and social transformation of the country, but the authorisation was finally limited to Southern Slovakia. The ensuing introduction of the Hungarian legal system there paid very little attention to particular local interests.