Misplaced Pages

Independent Smallholders, Agrarian Workers and Civic Party

Article snapshot taken from Wikipedia with creative commons attribution-sharealike license. Give it a read and then ask your questions in the chat. We can research this topic together.
(Redirected from Independent Smallholders' Party)
This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. (Learn how and when to remove these messages)
This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.
Find sources: "Independent Smallholders, Agrarian Workers and Civic Party" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (February 2013) (Learn how and when to remove this message)
This article needs to be updated. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. (March 2022)
(Learn how and when to remove this message)
Political party in Hungary
Independent Smallholders, Agrarian Workers and Civic Party Független Kisgazda, Földmunkás és Polgári Párt
LeaderKároly Balogh
Founded12 October 1930
27 October 1956
18 November 1988
Dissolved1949 (1st)4 November 1956 (2nd)
Headquarters1092. Budapest, Kinizsi u. 22.
NewspaperKis Újság (1956)
Youth wingSmallholder Youth Section
IdeologyAgrarianism
Hungarian nationalism
Right-wing populism
National conservatism
Anti-communismHistorical (1930s–40s):Agrarian socialismDemocratizationAnti-fascismAnti-communism (factions)Civic nationalismRepublicanism (factions)
Political positionRight-wingHistorical:Big tent
National affiliationOur Homeland Movement–FKgP–MIÉP
Colours  Green
SloganIsten, Haza, Család
God, Homeland, Family
Website
www.fkgp.hu
This article is part of a series on
Conservatism in Hungary
Coat_of_arms_of_Hungary
Ideologies
Principles
History
Intellectuals
Politicians
PartiesActive

Defunct

Organisations
Media
Related topics

The Independent Smallholders, Agrarian Workers and Civic Party (Hungarian: Független Kisgazda-, Földmunkás- és Polgári Párt), known mostly by its acronym FKgP or its shortened form Independent Smallholders' Party (Hungarian: Független Kisgazdapárt), is a political party in Budapest, Hungary. Since the 2002 parliamentary elections, the party has not won any seats.

History

Founded on 12 October 1930 after splitting from the Unity Party, the party was one of the largest anti-fascist opposition parties in the 1930s and during World War II. Representing the interests of landed peasants along with some poor peasants and urban middle class, it advocated for land reform and democratization. Its members opposed Hungary's participation in World War II, giving anti-fascist speeches in Parliament and leading rallies as late as 1943. During the German occupation of Hungary, its members took part in the clandestine anti-fascist resistance movement, and played a major role in the provisional government established in the Soviet-occupied zone of the country. At this time it absorbed several other parties and became quite heterogenous, with tendencies ranging from right-wing to left wing.

The original party won a majority in the first elections after the Second World War, resulting in its leader, Zoltán Tildy, becoming prime minister. In the elections in November 1945, the Smallholders' polled 57% of votes against the Communists' 17%. Despite this victory, the Soviet-dominated Allied Control Commission forced the winning party into a grand coalition government with the other parties including the Communists. The Smallholders-dominated parliament established a republic in 1946 with Tildy as president. He was succeeded as prime minister by Ferenc Nagy. Meanwhile, the Communists had formed a "Left Bloc" with the Social Democrats and National Peasants, opposed to the majority Smallholders on every issue with the intent of creating deadlock and facilitating the latter's breakup. Their first demand was the expulsion of twenty "reactionaries" from the Smallholder-led coalition. These people went on to form the Hungarian Freedom Party, the most vocal opposition force over the next year.

From December 1946, the Communists exaggerated a minor intrigue involving several anti-Communist politicians to accuse vast swaths of the Smallholders' Party of complicity in a reactionary plot. The Communist political police (ÁVO) began to arrest hundreds of Smallholders' Party members, ultimately depriving that party of its elected majority in Parliament. Acting in tandem with this, Soviet troops kidnapped the party's General Secretary Béla Kovács on 25 February 1947 and deported him to the USSR, where he would be imprisoned for over eight years. When Prime Minister Nagy travelled abroad in May, the Communists seized the opportunity to remove him from office. They accused him of conspiracy in the alleged plot and threatened to harm his son if he did not resign. Nagy, unwilling to risk his own life or that of his family, ratified his resignation on 2 June 1947.

The Smallholders' Party was effectively finished as a political force, and its leaders were now co-opted as fellow travellers. Its member Lajos Dinnyés became the new Prime Minister, but the Communists effectively controlled his government. Politicians expelled from the Smallholders after the Communist intrigues formed new parties, primarily the Democratic People's Party, Hungarian Independence Party and Independent Hungarian Democratic Party. New elections in August massively reduced the Smallholders' Party's share of votes and seats in Parliament, but this was mostly in favor of the parties which had succeeded from them. Combined, the FKGP and its offshoots had roughly the same number of votes the party had won in the 1945 election.

Despite this, the rump party's fellow-travelling leaders formed a coalition with the Communists, who now had increased representation. Most of the remaining non-collaborationist Smallholders were forced out of the party and into exile over the next two years. President Tildy, now politically isolated, was forced to resign in July 1948. Another Smallholder, the openly pro-Communist István Dobi, became premier in December 1948, and pushed out the remaining elements of the party who were not willing to stop their obstruction. In 1949, the party was absorbed into a People's Independent Front, led by the communist Hungarian Working People's Party. The latter prevailed in elections held that year, marking the onset of Hungarian People's Republic. The Smallholders party was dissolved later in 1949, and Dobi and several other left-wing Smallholders joined the Communist Party.

During the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 the Smallholders' Party was revived under the leadership of Zoltan Tildy and Béla Kovács, who had returned from Soviet exile earlier that year. Both of them joined the democratic coalition government of Imre Nagy on 27 October 1956 which was brought to power in the Revolution, as the first non-Communists in the government since 1948. However, the party was unable to function after the Soviet invasion which crushed the Revolution.

After the end of Communism in Hungary, the Smallholders' Party was revived again and took part in the center-right governments of József Antall, Péter Boross, and Viktor Orbán. In the 2002 Hungarian parliamentary election it lost all its seats in Parliament, and has not regained a seat since.

In early 2019, Our Homeland Movement (Mi Hazánk Mozgalom) made an alliance with the far-right Hungarian Justice and Life Party (MIÉP) and FKgP.

On August 3, 2021, Kuruc.info published an article in which they revealed that the national court initiated liquidation proceedings against the party for its massive debts. The article also revealed that all the remaining members of the party would run in 2022 elections on the list of Our Homeland Movement.

Party leaders

Image Name Entered office Left office Image Name Entered office Left office
1 Bálint Szijj 1930 1931 10 Tivadar Pártay 1988 1989
2 Gaszton Gaál 1931 1932 11 Vince Vörös 1989 1990
3 Tibor Eckhardt 1932 1940 12 Ferenc József Nagy 1990 1991
4 Zoltán Tildy 1940 1944 13 József Torgyán 1991 2002
5 István Balogh 1944 1945 14 Miklós Réti 2002 2005
6 Zoltán Tildy 1945 1946 15 Péter Hegedűs 2005 2017
7 Ferenc Nagy 1946 1947 16 Károly Balogh 2017 2018
8 István Dobi 1947 1949 17 Roland Hajdara 2018 2020
9 Béla Kovács 1956 1956 18 Károly Balogh 2020 2021

Election results

National Assembly

Election Votes Seats Rank Government Leader
# % ±pp # +/−
1931 173,477 11.48% – 10 / 245 4th in opposition Gaszton Gaál
1935 387,351 19.62% Increase 8.14 22 / 245 Increase 12 2nd in opposition Tibor Eckhardt
1939 569,054 14,56% Decrease 5.06 14 / 260 Decrease 8 3rd in opposition Tibor Eckhardt
1944 n/a n/a n/a 124 / 498 Increase 110 3rd FKGP–MKP–MSZDP–NPP–PDP n/a
1945 2,697,262 57.03% Increase42.47 245 / 409 Increase 121 1st FKGP–MKP–MSZDP–NPP Zoltán Tildy
1947 766,000 15.34% Decrease41.69 68 / 411 Decrease 177 2nd MKP–FKGP–MSZDP–NPP(until 1948) Lajos Dinnyés
MDP–FKGP–NPP(from 1948)
1949 5,478,515 97.1% Increase81.76 62 / 402 Decrease 6 1st MFN (MDP–FKGP–NPP) Mátyás Rákosi
1990 576,256 11.74% – 44 / 386 3rd MDF–FKGP–KDNP(until 1992) Vince Vörös
in opposition
1994 476,416 8.82% Decrease2.92 26 / 386 Decrease 18 4th in opposition József Torgyán
1998 617,740 13.78% Increase4.96 48 / 386 Increase 22 3rd Fidesz–FKGP–MDF József Torgyán
2002 42,338 0.75% Decrease13.03 0 / 386 Decrease 48 6th extra-parliamentary Miklós Réti
2006 838 0.02% Decrease0.73 0 / 386 Steady 0 16th extra-parliamentary Péter Hegedűs
2010 381 0.01% Decrease0.01 0 / 386 Steady 0 19th extra-parliamentary Péter Hegedűs
2014 7,426 0.16% Increase0.15 0 / 199 Steady 0 16th extra-parliamentary Péter Hegedűs
2018 1,580 0.03% Decrease0.13 0 / 199 Steady 0 39th extra-parliamentary Károly Balogh

FKGP was a member of the Communist-led Hungarian Independence People's Front (MFN). Hungary became a one-party state after the 1949 election.

References

  1. ATV. "Visszatért a Független Kisgazdapárt".
  2. Nordsieck, Wolfram (2002). "Hungary". Parties and Elections in Europe. Archived from the original on 7 February 2005. Retrieved 20 April 2019.
  3. ^ Jürgen Dieringer (2009). Das Politische System der Republik Ungarn: Entstehung – Entwicklung – Europäisierung. Verlag Barbara Budrich. pp. 116–121. ISBN 9783866497214.
  4. Hungary 1944–1953: Glossary. The Institute for the History of the 1956 Revolution.
  5. Philipp Karl (2018). Analyse der ungarischen Parteien Jobbik und Fidesz: Erklärungsansätze für ihren Aufschwung. Tectum Wissenschaftsverlag. p. 48. ISBN 9783828867710.
  6. Part 1: An Attempt at a New, Democratic Start, 1944–1946 The Institute for the History of the 1956 Revolution.
  8. Laar, M. (2009). "The Power of Freedom. Central and Eastern Europe after 1945." Centre for European Studies, p. 38. "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2013-11-11. Retrieved 2012-04-05.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  9. ^ Part 2: Communist take-over, 1946-1949 The Institute for the History of the 1956 Revolution.
  10. "A Független Kisgazdapárt is csatlakozna a MIÉP és a Mi Hazánk Mozgalom együttműködéséhez". 20 February 2019.
  11. "Kuruc.info - Megszűnt a MIÉP, felszámolási eljárásban az FKGP - vezetőik a Mi Hazánk jelöltjei lettek". Kuruc.info hírportál (in Hungarian). Retrieved 2021-08-23.

External links

Hungary Political parties in Hungary
National Assembly (199)
Not represented*

* Limit for parties to join the National Assembly in Hungary is 5 % of popular votes

European Parliament (21)
Categories: