Period of Reforms (1825–1848) Hungarian nationalism emerged among intellectuals influenced by the
Age of Enlightenment and
Romanticism. It grew rapidly, providing the foundation for the revolution of 1848–49. There was a special focus on the Magyar language, which replaced Latin as the language of the state and the schools. In the 1820s, Emperor
Francis I was forced to convene the Hungarian Diet, which inaugurated a Reform Period. Progress was slowed by the nobles, who clung to their privileges. Count
István Széchenyi, the nation's most prominent statesman, recognized the urgent need for modernization. The Hungarian Parliament was reconvened in 1825 to handle financial needs. A liberal party emerged focusing on the peasantry and proclaiming an understanding of the needs of the laborers.
Lajos Kossuth emerged as leader of the lower gentry in the Parliament. Habsburg monarchs, desiring an agrarian, traditional Hungary, tried to hinder industrialization. A remarkable upswing started as the nation concentrated on modernization despite Habsburg obstruction of all important liberal laws concerning
civil and political rights and economic reforms. These reforms included points such as
freedom of the press and the abolition of
noble and
common noble privileges. Many reformers (such as
Lajos Kossuth and
Mihály Táncsics) were imprisoned.
Revolution and war of independence reciting the
Nemzeti dal (national anthem) to a crowd on 15 March 1848. On 15 March 1848, mass demonstrations in Pest and Buda enabled Hungarian reformists to push through a list of
Twelve Demands. The Hungarian Diet took advantage of
the Revolutions of 1848 in the Habsburg areas to enact the
April Laws, a comprehensive legislative program of dozens of
civil rights reforms. Faced with revolution both at home and in Hungary, Austrian Emperor
Ferdinand I at first had to accept Hungarian demands. After the Austrian uprising was suppressed, a new emperor
Franz Joseph replaced his epileptic uncle Ferdinand. Joseph rejected all reforms and started to arm against Hungary. A year later, in April 1849, an independent government of Hungary was established. The new government seceded from the Austrian Empire. The Habsburgs were dethroned in the Hungarian part of the Austrian Empire, and the first Republic of Hungary was proclaimed, with
Lajos Kossuth as governor and president. The first prime minister was
Lajos Batthyány. Joseph and his advisers skillfully manipulated the new nation's ethnic minorities, the Croatian, Serbian and Romanian peasantry, led by priests and officers firmly loyal to the Habsburgs, and induced them to rebel against the new government. The Hungarians were supported by the majority of the Slovaks, Germans, and Rusyns of the country, and almost all the Jews, as well as by many Polish, Austrian and Italian volunteers. Many members of the non-Hungarian nationalities secured high positions in the Hungarian army, for example General
János Damjanich. Initially, Hungarian forces (
Honvédség) managed to hold their ground. In July 1849, the Hungarian Parliament proclaimed and enacted the most progressive ethnic and
minority rights in the world, but it was too late. To subdue the Hungarian revolution, Joseph had prepared his troops against Hungary and obtained help from Russian Czar
Nicholas I. In June, Russian armies invaded Transylvania in concert with Austrian armies marching on Hungary from western fronts on which they had been victorious (Italy, Galicia and Bohemia). The Russian and Austrian forces overwhelmed the Hungarian army, and General
Artúr Görgey surrendered in August 1849. The Austrian marshall
Julius Freiherr von Haynau then became governor of Hungary and on 6 October ordered the
execution of 13 leaders of the Hungarian army as well as Prime Minister Batthyány; Kossuth escaped into exile. Following the war of 1848–1849, the country sank into "passive resistance".
Archduke Albrecht von Habsburg was appointed governor of the
Kingdom of Hungary, and this time was remembered for
Germanisation.
Austria-Hungary (1867–1918) Major military defeats, such as the
Battle of Königgrätz in 1866, forced Emperor Joseph to accept internal reforms. To appease Hungarian separatists, the emperor made an equitable deal with Hungary, the
Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867 negotiated by
Ferenc Deák, by which the dual monarchy of Austria-Hungary came into existence. The two realms were governed separately by two parliaments from two capitals, with a common monarch and common foreign and military policies. Economically, the empire was a
customs union. The first prime minister of Hungary after the compromise was Count
Gyula Andrássy. The old Hungarian constitution was restored, and Franz Joseph was crowned king of Hungary. In 1868, Hungarian and Croatian assemblies concluded the
Croatian–Hungarian Agreement by which Croatia was recognized as an
autonomous region.
Austria-Hungary was geographically the second-largest country in Europe after Russia. Its territories were appraised at in 1905. After Russia and the
German Empire, it was the third-most populous country in Europe. In the diet of 1832–36, the conflict between Catholic laymen and clergy sharpened considerably, and a mixed commission offered the Protestants certain limited concessions. The basic issue of this religious and educational struggle was how to promote Magyar language and Magyar nationalism and achieve more independence from German Austria. The land-owning nobility controlled the villages and monopolized political roles. In Parliament, the magnates held life memberships in the upper house, but the gentry dominated the lower house and, after 1830, parliamentary life. The tension between "crown" and "country" remained a constant political fixture as the Compromise of 1867 enabled the Magyar nobility to run the country, but left the emperor with control over foreign and military policies. However, after Andrássy served as prime minister, he became foreign minister of Austria-Hungary (1871–1879) and set foreign policies with an eye to Hungarian interests. Andrássy was a conservative; his foreign policies looked to expanding the empire into southeast Europe, preferably with British and German support, and without alienating Turkey. He saw Russia as the main adversary and distrusted Slavic nationalist movements. Meanwhile, conflicts between magnates and gentry appeared regarding protection against cheap food imports (in the 1870s), the Church-state problem (in the 1890s), and the "constitutional crisis" (in the 1900s). The gentry gradually lost their power locally and rebuilt their political base more on office-holding rather than land ownership. They depended more on the state apparatus and were reluctant to challenge it. in
Budapest (1894–1896) which was the first underground in continental Europe.
Economy The era witnessed significant economic development in the rural areas. The formerly backwards Hungarian economy became relatively modern and industrialized by the turn of the 20th century, although agriculture remained dominant in the GDP until 1880. In 1873, the old capital Buda and
Óbuda (ancient Buda) were officially merged with the third city, Pest, thus creating the new metropolis of
Budapest. Pest grew into the country's administrative, political, economic, trade, and cultural hub. Technological advancement accelerated industrialization and urbanization. The GDP per capita grew roughly 1.45% per year from 1870 to 1913, comparing very favorably to other European nations. The leading industries in this economic expansion were electricity and electro-technology, telecommunications, and transport (especially locomotive, tram, and ship construction). The key symbols of industrial progress were the
Ganz concern and
Tungsram Works. Many of the state institutions and modern administrative systems of Hungary were established during this period. The census of the Hungarian state in 1910 (excluding Croatia), recorded a population distribution of Hungarian 54.5%, Romanian 16.1%, Slovak 10.7%, and German 10.4%. The religious denomination with the greatest number of adherents was Roman Catholicism (49.3%), followed by Calvinism (14.3%), Greek Orthodoxy (12.8%), Greek Catholicism (11.0%), Lutheranism (7.1%), and Judaism (5.0%)
World War I After the
assassination of Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo on 28 June 1914, Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia on 28 July. Austria-Hungary drafted 9 million soldiers in World War I, of which 4 million were from the kingdom of Hungary. Austria-Hungary fought on the side of Germany,
Bulgaria and Ottoman Empire—the so-called
Central Powers. They occupied Serbia, and Romania declared war. The Central Powers then conquered southern Romania and the Romanian capital of
Bucharest. In November 1916, Emperor Franz Joseph died; the new monarch, Emperor
Charles I of Austria (
IV. Károly), sympathized with the pacifists. In the east, the Central Powers repelled attacks from the
Russian Empire. The
Eastern Front of the so-called
Entente Powers allied with Russia completely collapsed. Austria-Hungary withdrew from the defeated countries. On the
Italian front, the Austro-Hungarian army could not make more successful progress against Italy after January 1918. Despite successes on the Eastern Front, Germany suffered stalemate and eventual defeat on the more determinant
Western Front. By 1918, the economic situation had deteriorated alarmingly in Austria-Hungary; strikes in factories were organized by leftist and pacifist movements, and uprisings in the army had become commonplace. Austria-Hungary signed the
Armistice of Villa Giusti in
Padua on 3 November 1918. In October 1918, the personal union between Austria and Hungary was dissolved.
Interwar period (1918–1939) After the collapse of a short-lived communist regime, according to historian
István Deák: :Between 1919 and 1944 Hungary was a rightist country. Forged out of a counter-revolutionary heritage, its governments advocated a "nationalist Christian" policy; they extolled heroism, faith, and unity; they despised the French Revolution, and they spurned the liberal and socialist ideologies of the 19th century. The governments saw Hungary as a bulwark against bolshevism and bolshevism's instruments: socialism, cosmopolitanism, and Freemasonry. They perpetrated the rule of a small clique of aristocrats, civil servants, and army officers, and surrounded with adulation the head of the state, the counterrevolutionary Admiral Horthy.
Revolutions and foreign interventions First Hungarian Republic In the
aftermath of World War I, while Germany was defeated in 1918 on the Western Front, the Austro-Hungarian monarchy politically collapsed. Former prime minister
István Tisza was murdered in Budapest during the
Aster Revolution of October 1918. On 31 October 1918, the success of this revolution brought the left-liberal Count
Mihály Károlyi to power. He formed a coalition government with the Social Democrats and the Civic Radical Party. On 13 November 1918, Charles I surrendered his powers as king of Hungary; however, he did not abdicate. The revolution was relatively bloodless in Budapest, but the returning veterans plunged the countryside into chaos for the following two months. The pacification of these peasant rebellions caused more casualties than the subsequent red and white terrors. Thousands of local Hungarian National Councils were established across the country as a means of provisional administration, often acting semi-independent of the Károlyi government. National Councils of various nationalities (often multiple of one) were also formed to represent their interests. Though Austria-Hungary signed an armistice on the Italian front, that did not pertain to Franchet d'Espèrey's Allied Army of the Orient still advancing northwards in the Balkans. Since the Austro-Hungarian Army no longer existed, Károlyi negotiated a
separate armistice on behalf of the independent Hungary on 13 November. The armistice line included the allied occupation of Baranya, Vojvodina, Banat and Southern Transylvania (south of the Maros (
Mureș) river). The First Hungarian republic was proclaimed on 16 November 1918 with Károlyi named as president. Károlyi tried to build the republic as "eastern Switzerland" and persuade non-Hungarian minorities to stay loyal to the country, offering them autonomy. However these efforts came too late. In response to
Woodrow Wilson's conception of
pacifism, Károlyi ordered the full
disarmament of the Hungarian army, thus the republic remained without a national defense at a time of particular vulnerability. The emerging surrounding states were not hesitant to arm themselves and occupy large parts of the country with the help of the Entente, while there was no agreement yet about their borders. As a policy, the Allies refused to recognize the Austrian and Hungarian successor states. Károlyi's attempts at diplomatic outreach were fruitless. They remained under wartime economic blockade, which contributed to shortages, especially of coal. Though efforts to rebuild the army were made, demoralization, and constant conflict between
Pogány's Soldiers' Council and a revolving door of Defense Ministers impeded the process. From November 1918 to mid-January 1919, most territories that would eventually be ceded in the Treaty of Trianon came under foreign occupation: Hungarian authority in Croatia and Fiume already collapsed in late-October as the provisional
State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs was declared. Between 5 and 15 November 1918, Serbian forces, with French support, occupied the southern parts of Hungary described in the armistice agreement. Romania re-entered the war on 10 November (one day before Germany's surrender), and invaded Transylvania, reaching the armistice line by mid-December. Transylvanian Romanians declared their union with the Kingdom of Romania on 1 December 1918. In mid-December, Romanian forces crossed the Belgrade armistice line, entering Cluj on 24 December. Their advance halted by mid-January due to allied pressure and increasing Hungarian resistance by the Székely Battalion. The borders of Czechoslovakia were initially not defined (as it was not an open front, it was outside the scope of the armistice), but from early November, Czech paramilitaries raided into Slovakia. Due to allied pressure, Hungary reached a deal with Slovak politician Milan Hodža to hand over the ethnic Slovak areas on 6 December, then further territories were evacuated by an allied ultimatum issued on 23 December. By then, the Czechoslovak Legions of the Italian Front made their way to their home country, improving their power. On 1 January 1919, Czechoslovak forces entered Pressburg, that would soon be renamed Bratislava.
Carpathian Ruthenia was granted autonomy by Hungary in late December, some of it remained under Hungarian rule until April, 1919. Károlyi's domestic policy was centered around two issues that were long-standing causes in his progressive movement: land redistribution and universal suffrage. Although laws for both causes were enacted, the implementation proved too slow to save Károlyi's reputation. Land redistribution was the principal issue of the majority peasant population, but only small amounts of land were actually redistributed, among them Károlyi's own estates. New voting laws implemented universal male suffrage and female suffrage conditional on literacy tests. However Károlyi was reluctant to hold an election, both because of his waning popularity and because it could have only been held in the unoccupied parts of the country. That meant the government remained without democratic legitimacy. Eventually, an election for April 1919 was scheduled, but it was never held due to the Communist takeover. By February 1919, the new pacifist Hungarian government had lost all popular support. On 21 March 1919, after the Entente military representative
demanded more territorial concessions from Hungary, Károlyi's political situation became untenable. He decided to cede power to the Social Democrats, who in turn formed an alliance with the Communists, declaring the Hungarian Soviet Republic.
Hungarian Soviet Republic The
Communist Party of Hungary, led by
Béla Kun was a newly formed party aligned with the Bolsheviks of Soviet Russia. The Social Democrats were split in their relation to them, but on 21 March, the radical faction won out, and the two parties officially merged. They declared the
Hungarian Soviet Republic, and the
dictatorship of the proletariat. Social Democrat
Sándor Garbai was the official head of government, but the Soviet Republic was dominated de facto by Béla Kun, who was in charge of foreign affairs. The communists came to power largely thanks to its organized fighting force (no other major political entity had one of its own), and they promised that Hungary would defend its territory without conscription, possibly with the help of the Soviet
Red Army then advancing westwards in Ukraine. The rejection of their ultimatum did prompt the
Paris Peace Conference (the British overruling the French) to send a diplomatic mission to Budapest, but negotiations quickly broke down. On 16 April, Romania resumed its advance against Hungary, joined by Czechoslovakia on 27 April. By early May, it seemed the Soviet was about to be deposed. But Soviet military and allied diplomatic pressure forced Romania to halt at the River Tisza, while the Czechoslovak advance was repulsed by a newly organized
Red Army of Hungary - a small voluntary army of 53,000 men, most of its soldiers armed factory workers from Budapest. In June 1919, led by Colonel
Aurél Stromfeld, the Hungarian Red Army conducted the Northern Campaign, a successful offensive against Czechoslovak forces, recapturing Kassa, and even reaching the Polish border. On the captured territory, the
Slovak Soviet Republic was established, although it was mostly a symbolic entity. However the Red Army soon withdrew from these territories on Allied demand, promising them in return Romanian withdrawal from the Tisza, which did not occur (as Romania demanded Hungary's demilitarization). This greatly demoralized the Army and caused Stromfeld to resign. In terms of domestic policy, the communist government nationalized industrial and commercial enterprises, socialized housing, transport, banking, medicine, cultural institutions, and all large landholdings. Land was collectivized, which alienated most of the peasantry who still demanded redistribution. The Communists also introduced prohibition of alcohol, which was very unpopular. From April, sporadic resistance against the Communists was constant, culminating in late June, when a failed coup attempt in Budapest, and a peasant uprising along the lower Danube took place. The government took a series of violent actions called the
Red Terror, murdering hundreds of people. The
Soviet Red Army was never able to aid the Hungarian republic. On 20 July, the demoralized Hungarian Red Army launched a new offensive across the Tisza against Romanian troops, but it collapsed within days. This time, Romania marched on Budapest, occupying it on 4 August 1919. Seeing resistance as futile, the Communists resigned from power on the first of August. Béla Kun and most of his comrades fled to Austria. Power fell to the moderate wing of the Social Democrats, who refused Romanian armistice terms, and on 6 August, they were deposed by the right-wing
István Friedrich, who briefly attempted to name the Habsburg
Archduke Joseph August as head of state. The Soviet Republic, and in particular the final military defeat, led to a deep feeling of dislike among the general population against the Soviet Union and the
Hungarian Jews (since most members of Kun's government were Jewish).
Counterrevolution During the Soviet Republic, various conservative politicians fled and organized resistance in Vienna (
István Bethlen's
Antibolsevista Comité), and in French-occupied
Szeged (the counter-governments of
Gyula Károlyi). They were known as
counter-revolutionaries – the "Whites", united in their opposition to Károlyi and the Communists, their ideology ranged from Conservative Liberalism, Habsburg Legitimism, to proto-fascist ideologies sometimes called the
Szeged Idea. The Szeged counter-government tasked the former admiral
Miklós Horthy to organize a new National Army, while Habsburg royalists established paramilitaries in
Styria across the Hungarian border. forces in strength of the 1920s. The counter-revolutionary organizations were unsuccessful in overthrowing the Soviet Republic, however after its fall, they took control over the areas of Transdanubia not occupied by Romanians. In the absence of a strong national police force or regular military forces, a
White Terror began by the hands of these paramilitary detachments. Many arrant communists and other leftists were tortured and executed without trial. Radical Whites launched
pogroms against the Jews. The most notorious commander of the Whites was
Pál Prónay. Over the course of August, Horthy consolidated his position over the paramilitaries, being recognized by the weak government of István Friedrich in Budapest as "Supreme Warlord". Hungary was in a state of military anarchy and occupation between August and November 1919. Romanian army pillaged the country: livestock, machinery and agricultural products were carried to Romania. The Paris Peace Conference wished to end the chaos and establish a stable government that could sign a peace treaty. They placed heavy pressure on Romania to withdraw and sent
George Clerk to Budapest to help establish a functional Hungarian government. On 16 November 1919, as Romanian forces withdrew, the National Army of
Miklós Horthy marched into Budapest. By 30 March 1920, Romanian, French and Czechoslovak troops withdrew to the future Hungarian border outlined by the Paris Peace Conference. Baranya was occupied by Yugoslav forces until August 1921, while Austria only took control of Burgenland in November 1921. In January 1920, parliamentary elections were held in Hungarian-controlled territory, on laws similar to that of Károlyi. About 40% of the population, were eligible to vote, including for the first time women. Parliament convened for the first time since the Aster Revolution. The White Terror continued until late 1920, when radical right-wing paramilitaries were suppressed. In March 1920, the parliament restored the Hungarian monarchy as a regency but postponed the election of a king until civil disorder had subsided. Instead, Horthy was elected regent and empowered, among other things, to appoint Hungary's prime minister, veto legislation, convene or dissolve the parliament, and command the armed forces.
Treaty of Trianon : Hungary lost 72% of its land, and sea ports in Croatia, 3,425,000 Magyars found themselves separated from their motherland. The country lost five of its ten biggest Hungarian cities. The Paris Peace Conference discussed the question of Hungary's future borders between February and April 1919, and only small modifications were made later. No Hungarian delegation was present at the time–Hungary was only invited on 1 December 1919. That delegation had no power to re-negotiate the established terms, and after several months, they signed the peace treaty. Hungary's assent to the
Treaty of Trianon on 4 June 1920 ratified the decision of the victorious Entente powers to re-draw the country's borders. The treaty required Hungary to surrender more than two-thirds of its pre-war territories. The goal of this measure was to permit the minority populations of the former Austria-Hungary to reside in states dominated by their own ethnicity, but many Hungarians still lived in such territories. As a result, nearly one third of the 10 million ethnic Hungarians found themselves resident outside their diminished homeland. New international borders separated Hungary's industrial base from its old sources of raw materials and its former markets. Hungary lost 84% of its timber resources, 43% of its arable land, and 83% of its iron ore. Although Hungary retained 90% of the engineering and printing industry of the former Kingdom of Hungary, only 11% of timber and 16% iron was retained. In addition, 61% of arable land, 74% of public road, 65% of canals, 62% of railroads, 64% of hard surface roads, 83% of pig iron output, 55% of industrial plants, 100% of gold, silver, copper, mercury and salt mines, and most of all, 67% of credit and banking institutions of the former Kingdom of Hungary lay within the territory of Hungary's neighbors.
Irredentism—the demand for return of lost territories—became a central "Maimed Hungary" theme in national politics.
The Regency de Nagybánya, Regent of Hungary. and German leader
Adolf Hitler in 1938.Horthy appointed Count
Pál Teleki as prime minister in July 1920. His government issued a
numerus clausus law that limited the admission of nationalities to universities to their proportion in the population (in practice, this mostly targeted the Jews as "political insecure elements" ) and took initial steps towards fulfilling a promise of major land reform by dividing about 3,850 km2 from the largest estates into small holdings in order to quiet rural discontent. Teleki's government resigned, however, after Charles I of Austria, the former emperor of Austria and king of Hungary,
attempted unsuccessfully to retake Hungary's throne in March 1921. The attempt split conservative politicians who favored a Habsburg restoration and nationalist right-wing radicals who supported the election of a native Hungarian king. Count
István Bethlen took advantage of this rift to form a new
Party of Unity under his leadership. Horthy then appointed Bethlen prime minister. Charles failed to reclaim the throne a second time in October 1921 by military force. In response, he was exiled to Madeira, where he soon died, and the Habsburgs were officially dethroned. In the same time,
conflict erupted between Austria and Hungary over the handover of Burgenland. Paramilitaries led by Prónay repulsed the arriving Austrians and established an independent
Lajtabánság. In exchange to end support for the paramilitaries, Austria agreed a
referendum be held in the city of Sopron. The city and eight surrounding settlements voted to remain in Hungary, while Austria took over the rest of
Őrvidék, which was renamed to Burgenland in 1922. Prime Minister Bethlen dominated Hungarian politics between 1921 and 1931. He fashioned a political machine by amending the electoral law, providing jobs in the expanding bureaucracy to his supporters, and manipulating elections in rural areas. Bethlen restored order to the country by giving the radical counter-revolutionaries payoffs and government jobs in exchange for ceasing their campaign of terror against Jews and leftists. in the 1930s just before the Second World War.In 1921, Bethlen made a deal with the Social Democrats and trade unions (called the
Bethlen-Peyer Pact) to legalize their activities and free political prisoners in return for their pledge to refrain from spreading
anti-Hungarian propaganda, calling political strikes, and attempting to organize the peasantry. Bethlen brought Hungary into the
League of Nations in 1922 and signed a treaty of friendship with Italy in 1927. Overall, Bethlen sought to pursue a strategy of strengthening the economy and building relations with stronger nations. Irredentism, the revision of the Treaty of Trianon, rose to the top of Hungary's political agenda. They sought the suppression and victimization of Jews. The government passed the First Jewish Law in 1938: the law established a quota system to limit Jewish involvement in the economy. In 1938,
Béla Imrédy became prime minister. Imrédy's attempts to improve Hungary's diplomatic relations with the United Kingdom initially made him very unpopular in Germany and Italy. In light of Germany's
Anschluss with Austria in March, he realized that he could not afford to alienate Germany and Italy. In the autumn of 1938, his foreign policy became very much pro-German and pro-Italian.Intent on amassing a base of power in Hungarian right-wing politics, Imrédy began to suppress political rivals. The increasingly influential
Arrow Cross Party was harassed and eventually banned. As Imrédy drifted further to the right, he proposed that the government be reorganized along totalitarian lines and drafted a harsher Second Jewish Law which greatly restricted Jewish involvement in the economy, culture and society and, significantly, defined Jews by race instead of religion. This definition significantly and negatively altered the status of those who had formerly converted from Judaism to Christianity.
World War II , in front of the Ministry of Defense, 1944. s at
Auschwitz death camp (May 1944). tank in Budapest, October 1944. During World War II, the Kingdom of Hungary was a member of the
Axis powers.
Nazi Germany and
Fascist Italy sought to enforce the claims of Hungarians living in territories Hungary lost in 1920 with the signing of the Treaty of Trianon, and the two
Vienna Awards returned parts from Czechoslovakia and Romania to Hungary. During the 1930s, the Kingdom of Hungary relied on increased trade with Fascist Italy. This was important at the time because Hungary's foreign debt enlarged as Bethlen expanded the bureaucracy to absorb the university graduates who, if left idle, might have threatened the civil order. The 1939 annexation of the remainder or
Carpathian Ruthenia was an own action initiated by Hungary after the breakup of Czechoslovakia. On 1 September 1939, Nazi Germany invaded Poland and started the Second World War. On 20 November 1940, under pressure from Germany, Teleki affiliated Hungary with the
Tripartite Pact. In December 1940, he also signed an ephemeral "Treaty of Eternal Friendship" with
Yugoslavia. A few months later, after a Yugoslavian coup threatened the success of the planned German invasion of the Soviet Union, Hitler asked the Hungarians to support his
invasion of Yugoslavia. He promised to return some former Hungarian territories lost after
World War I in exchange for cooperation. Aware of Kállay's deceit and fearing that Hungary might conclude a separate peace, Hitler ordered Nazi troops to launch
Operation Margarethe and occupy Hungary in March 1944.
Döme Sztójay, an avid supporter of the Nazis, became the new prime minister with the aid of a Nazi military governor,
Edmund Veesenmayer.
SS Colonel
Adolf Eichmann went to Hungary to oversee the large-scale deportations of Jews to German death camps. Between 15 May – 9 July 1944, the Hungarians deported 437,402 Jews to the
Auschwitz concentration camp. In August 1944, Horthy replaced Sztójay with the anti-Fascist General
Géza Lakatos. Under the Lakatos regime, the acting Interior Minister
Béla Horváth ordered Hungarian gendarmes to prevent any Hungarian citizens from being deported. In September 1944, Soviet forces crossed the Hungarian border. On 15 October 1944, Horthy announced that Hungary had signed an armistice with the Soviet Union. The Hungarian army ignored the armistice. The Germans launched
Operation Panzerfaust and, by kidnapping his son (
Miklós Horthy Jr.), forced Horthy to abrogate the armistice, depose the Lakatos government, and name the leader of the Arrow Cross Party,
Ferenc Szálasi, as prime minister. Szálasi became prime minister of a new fascist
Government of National Unity and Horthy abdicated. The retreating German army demolished the rail, road, and communications systems. On 28 December 1944, a provisional government was formed in Hungary under acting prime minister Béla Miklós. Miklós and Szálasi's rival governments each claimed legitimacy and the territory effectively controlled by the Arrow Cross regime shrunk gradually. The Red Army completed the encirclement of Budapest on 29 December 1944, and the
siege of Budapest continued into February 1945. Most of what remained of the Hungarian First Army was destroyed north of Budapest between 1 January – 16 February 1945. Budapest unconditionally surrendered to the Soviet Red Army on 13 February 1945. On 20 January 1945, representatives of the Hungarian provisional government signed an armistice in Moscow. Szálasi's government fled the country. Officially, Soviet operations in Hungary ended on 4 April 1945, when the last German troops were expelled. The era was characterized by growing anti-Semitism, which was also supported at the level of state politics, leading to the violent deaths of more than 400,000 Jews from 1941 to 1945. The war took many lives among the population, the most devastating was the siege of Budapest. There were about half a million civilian and military victims of World War II in Hungary, in addition to the hundreds of thousands killed in
death camps. The country's infrastructure was severely damaged, and most of the national wealth was taken by the Germans and the Soviets. All the recaptured territories were also lost, and the Hungarian civilian population then lost even more people, who suffered the return of the attacks in neighboring countries in Slovakia, Transcarpathia, and especially in
Vojvodina from deportation and massacres. Following the
Paris Peace Treaty of 1947, Hungary had an area smaller than the Trianon borders, and the Czechoslovak delegation succeeded in removing the
Bratislava bridgehead from the country. The country, plagued by looting and inflation, was then ordered to pay $300 million in damages. As regards Hungary's
World War II casualties, Tamás Stark of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences calculated military losses at 300,000–310,000, including 110–120,000 killed in battle and 200,000
missing in action and prisoners of war in the Soviet Union. Hungarian military losses include 110,000 men who were conscripted from the annexed territories of
Greater Hungary in Slovakia, Romania and Yugoslavia and the deaths of 20,000–25,000 Jews conscripted for army labor units. Civilian losses of about 80,000 include 45,500 killed in the 1944–1945 military campaign and in air attacks, and the genocide of
Romani people of 28,000 persons. Jewish
Holocaust victims totaled 600,000 (300,000 in the territories annexed between 1938 and 1941, 200,000 in the pre-1938 countryside, and 100,000 in Budapest).
Post-war communist period Transition to communism (1944–1949) The Soviet Army occupied Hungary from September 1944 until April 1945. The siege of Budapest lasted almost two months, from December 1944 to February 1945 (the longest successful siege of any city in the entire war, including Berlin), and the city suffered widespread destruction, including the demolition of all the Danube bridges. In Moscow in November 1944, Hungarian officials led by Miklós met with exiled communists and agreed on a postwar government. Miklós would be premier, and the Communist Party would be legalized and join the government. The provisional national government formed on 22 December 1944 in
Debrecen, which was under Soviet control. It reorganized the public sector, began land reform, modernized elementary education, and called for elections. By signing the
Peace Treaty of Paris of 1947, Hungary again lost all the territories that it had gained between 1938 and 1941. Neither the Western Allies nor the Soviet Union supported any change in Hungary's pre-1938 borders, except three more villages to be transferred to the recreated Czechoslovakia (
Horvátjárfalu,
Oroszvár, and
Dunacsúny). The Soviet Union annexed sub-Carpathia (before 1938 the eastern edge of Czechoslovakia). The Treaty of Peace with Hungary signed on 10 February 1947 declared that, "The decisions of the Vienna Award of November 2, 1938, are declared null and void", and Hungarian boundaries were fixed along the former frontiers as they existed on 1 January 1938 except for a minor loss of territory on the Czechoslovak border. Many of the communist leaders of 1919 returned from Moscow. The first major violation of civil rights was suffered by the ethnic German minority, half of which (240,000 people) were deported to Germany in 1946–1948. There was a forced "exchange of population" between Hungary and Czechoslovakia, which involved about 70,000 Hungarians living in Slovakia and somewhat smaller numbers of ethnic Slovaks living in the territory of Hungary. The Soviets originally planned for a piecemeal introduction of the communist regime in Hungary, therefore when they set up a provisional government in Debrecen on 21 December 1944, they were careful to include representatives of several moderate parties. Following the demands of the Western Allies for a democratic election, the Soviets authorized the only essentially free election held in post-war eastern Europe in Hungary in November 1945. This was also the first election held in Hungary on the basis of
universal franchise. People voted for party lists, not for individual candidates. The
Independent Smallholders' Party, a center-right peasant party, won 57% of the vote. Despite the hopes of the communists and the Soviets that the distribution of the aristocratic estates among the poor peasants would increase their popularity, the
Hungarian Communist Party received only 17% of the votes. The Soviet commander in Hungary,
Marshal Voroshilov, refused to allow the Smallholders' Party to form a government on their own. Under Voroshilov's pressure, the Smallholders organized a coalition government including the communists, the Social Democrats and the
National Peasant Party (a left-wing peasant party), in which the communists held some of the key posts. On 1 February 1946 Hungary was declared a republic, and the leader of the Smallholders,
Zoltán Tildy, became president. He handed over the office of prime minister to
Ferenc Nagy.
Mátyás Rákosi, leader of the Communist Party, became deputy prime minister. Another leading communist,
László Rajk, became minister of the interior responsible for controlling law enforcement and established the Hungarian security police (
ÁVH). The communists exercised constant pressure on the Smallholders. They nationalized industrial companies, banned religious civil organizations and occupied key positions in local public administration. In February 1947, the police began arresting leaders of the Smallholders Party, charging them with "conspiracy against the republic". Several prominent figures decided to emigrate or were forced to escape abroad, including Prime Minister Nagy in May 1947. At the parliamentary election in August 1947, the communists committed widespread
election fraud but even so, they only managed to increase their share from 17% to 24% in Parliament. The Smallholders' Party lost much of its popularity and ended up with 15%, but their former voters turned towards three new center-right parties which seemed more determined to resist the communist onslaught: their combined share of the total votes was 35%. Faced with their second failure at the polls, the communists changed tactics, and, under new orders from Moscow, decided to eschew democratic facades and speed up the communist takeover. In June 1948, the Social Democratic Party was forced to merge with the Communist Party to create the
Hungarian Working People's Party, which was dominated by the communists. Anti-communist leaders of the social democrats, such as
Károly Peyer and
Anna Kéthly, were forced into exile or excluded from the party. Soon after, President Tildy was removed from his position and replaced by a fully cooperative social democrat,
Árpád Szakasits. Ultimately, all parties were organized into a coalition called the People's Front in February 1949, thereby losing even the vestiges of their autonomy. The leader of the People's Front was Rákosi. Opposition parties were declared illegal and their leaders arrested or forced into exile. On 18 August 1949, the parliament passed the
Hungarian Constitution of 1949, which was modeled after the 1936 constitution of the Soviet Union. The name of the country changed to the People's Republic of Hungary, "the country of the workers and peasants" where "every authority is held by the working people." Socialism was declared to be the main goal of the nation. A new coat-of-arms was adopted with communist symbols such the red star, hammer, and sickle.
Stalinist era (1949–1956) Rákosi, who as a chief secretary of the Hungarian Working People's Party was de facto the leader of Hungary, possessed practically unlimited power and demanded complete obedience from fellow members of the party–including his two most trusted colleagues,
Ernő Gerő and
Mihály Farkas. All three of them returned to Hungary from Moscow, where they had close ties to high-ranking Soviet leaders. Their main rivals in the party were the "Hungarian" communists who led the illegal party during the war and were considerably more popular within party ranks. Rajk, their most influential leader, was arrested in May 1949. He was accused of spying for Western imperialist powers and Yugoslavia. At his trial in September 1949, he made a forced confession to be an agent of Horthy,
Leon Trotsky,
Josip Broz Tito and Western imperialism. Rajk was found guilty and executed. Over the next three years, other leaders of the party deemed untrustworthy were imprisoned on similar charges. The show trial of Rajk is considered the beginning of the worst period of the Rákosi dictatorship. Rákosi attempted to impose totalitarian rule on Hungary. The centrally-orchestrated
personality cult focused on him and
Joseph Stalin soon reached unprecedented proportions. Rákosi's images and busts were everywhere, and all public speakers were required to glorify his wisdom and leadership. In the meantime, the secret police, led through
Gábor Péter by Rákosi, mercilessly persecuted all "class enemies" and "enemies of the people." An estimated 2,000 people were executed, and over 100,000 were imprisoned. Some 44,000 ended up in forced-labor camps, where many died from the horrible work conditions, poor food and lack of medical care. Another 15,000 people—mostly former aristocrats, industrialists, military generals and other upper-class people—were deported from the capital and other cities to countryside villages where they were forced to perform hard agricultural labor. These policies were opposed by some members of the Hungarian Working People's Party, and around 200,000 were expelled by Rákosi from the organization.
Nationalization By 1950, the
state controlled most of the economy, as all large and mid-sized industrial companies, plants, mines, banks of all kinds, as well as all companies of retail and foreign trade were nationalized without any compensation. Following Soviet economic policies, Rákosi declared that Hungary would become a "country of iron and steel" even though Hungary completely lacked iron ore. The forced development of heavy industry served military purposes. A disproportionate amount of the country's resources were spent on building whole new industrial cities and plants from scratch, while much of the country was still in ruins since the war. Traditional strengths of Hungary, such as the agricultural and textile industries, were neglected. Large agricultural
latifundia were divided and distributed among poor peasants in 1945. In agriculture, the government forced independent peasants to enter cooperatives in which they would become paid laborers, and when many of them stubbornly resisted, the government retaliated with higher food quotas imposed on peasants' produce. Rich peasants, called 'kulaks' in Russian, were declared "class enemies" and suffered sanctions. With them, some of the most able farmers were removed from production. The declining agricultural output led to a constant scarcity of food, especially meat. Rákosi rapidly expanded the education system in Hungary. This was an attempt to replace the educated class of the past by what Rákosi called a new "working intelligentsia." In addition to effects such as better education for the poor, more opportunities for working class children, and increased literacy in general, this measure also included the dissemination of communist ideology in schools and universities. Also, as part of efforts at
separation of church and state, practically all religious schools were taken into state ownership, and religious education was denounced as retrograde propaganda and gradually eliminated from schools. Cardinal
József Mindszenty was arrested in December 1948 and accused of treason. After five weeks under arrest (which included torture), he confessed to the charges against him and was sentenced to life imprisonment. The Protestant and Catholic churches were also purged, and their leaders were replaced by those willing to remain loyal to Rákosi's government. The Hungarian military hastily staged public trials to purge "Nazi remnants and imperialist saboteurs." Several officers were sentenced to death and executed in 1951, including Lajos Toth, a distinguished
fighter ace of World War II. The victims were cleared posthumously following the overthrow of communism.
Rivalry between communist leaders Rákosi's priorities for the economy were developing military industry and heavy industry and providing the Soviet Union with war compensation. Improving standards of living were not a priority, and for this reason the people of Hungary saw living standards fall. Although his government became increasingly unpopular, he had a firm grip on power until Stalin died on 5 March 1953, and a confused power struggle began in Moscow. Some of the Soviet leaders perceived the unpopularity of the Hungarian regime and ordered Rákosi to give up his position as prime minister in favor of another former communist-in-exile in Moscow,
Imre Nagy, who was Rákosi's chief opponent in the party. Rákosi, however, retained his position as general secretary of the Hungarian Working People's Party, and over the next three years the two men became involved in a bitter struggle for power. As Hungary's prime minister, Nagy slightly relaxed state control over the economy and the mass media and encouraged public discussion on political and economic reform. In order to improve general living standards, he increased the production and distribution of consumer goods and reduced the tax and quota burdens of the peasants. Nagy also closed forced-labor camps, released most of the political prisoners and reined in the secret police, whose hated head Gábor Péter was convicted and imprisoned in 1954. All these rather moderate reforms earned him widespread popularity in the country, especially among the peasantry and the left-wing intellectuals. Following a turn in Moscow, where
Georgy Malenkov, Nagy's primary patron, lost the power struggle against
Nikita Khrushchev, Rákosi started a counterattack on Nagy. On 9 March 1955, the central committee of the Hungarian Working People's Party condemned Nagy for "rightist deviation," and Nagy was accused of being responsible for the country's economic problems. On 18 April, he was dismissed from his post by a unanimous vote of the National Assembly. Rákosi once again became the unchallenged leader of Hungary. Rákosi's second reign, however, did not last long. His power was undermined by a speech made by Khrushchev in February 1956, in which Khrushchev denounced the policies of Stalin and his followers in eastern Europe. On 18 July 1956, visiting Soviet leaders removed Rákosi from all his positions, and he boarded a plane bound for the Soviet Union. But the Soviets made a major mistake by the appointment of his close friend and ally Gerő as his successor, who was equally unpopular and shared responsibility for most of Rákosi's crimes. The fall of Rákosi was followed by a flurry of reform agitation–both inside and outside the party. Rajk and his fellow victims of the show trial of 1949 were cleared of all charges, and on 6 October 1956, the party authorized a reburial, which was attended by tens of thousands of people and became a silent demonstration against the crimes of the regime. On 13 October, it was announced that Nagy had been reinstated as a member of the party.
1956 revolution On 23 October 1956, a peaceful student demonstration in Budapest produced a list of 16
Demands of Hungarians Revolutionaries for reform and greater political freedom. As the students attempted to broadcast these demands, the
State Protection Authority made some arrests and tried to disperse the crowd with tear gas. When the students attempted to free those arrested, the police opened fire, setting off a chain of events which led to the
Hungarian Revolution of 1956. Commissioned officers and soldiers joined the students on the streets of Budapest and Stalin's statue was brought down. The central committee of the Hungarian Working People's Party responded to these developments by requesting Soviet military intervention and deciding that Nagy should become head of a new government. Soviet tanks entered Budapest in the early morning of 24 October. On 25 October, Soviet tanks opened fire on protesters in Parliament Square. Shocked by these events, the central committee of the Hungarian Working People's Party forced Gerő to resign from office and replaced him with
János Kádár. Nagy went on
Radio Kossuth and announced he had taken over the leadership of the government as chairman of the Council of Ministers. He also promised "the far-reaching democratization of Hungarian public life, the realization of a Hungarian road to socialism in accord with our own national characteristics, and the realization of our lofty national aim: the radical improvement of the workers' living conditions." On 28 October, Nagy and a group of his supporters, including Kádár, Géza Losonczy, Antal Apró, Károly Kiss, Ferenc Münnich and Zoltán Szabó, managed to take control of the Hungarian Working People's Party. At the same time, revolutionary workers' councils and local national committees were formed all over Hungary. The change of leadership in the party was reflected in the articles of the government newspaper,
Szabad Nép ("Free People"). On 29 October, the newspaper welcomed the new government and openly criticized Soviet attempts to influence the political situation in Hungary. On 30 October, Nagy announced that he was freeing Cardinal Mindszenty and other political prisoners. He also informed the people that his government intended to abolish the one-party state. This was followed by statements of Tildy, Kéthly and Farkas concerning the restitution of the Smallholders Party, the Social Democratic Party and the Petőfi (former Peasants) Party. Nagy's most controversial decision took place on 1 November, when he announced that Hungary intended to withdraw from the
Warsaw Pact and proclaimed Hungarian neutrality. He asked the
United Nations to become involved in the country's dispute with the Soviet Union. On 3 November, Nagy announced details of his coalition government. It included communists (Kádár,
Georg Lukács, and Géza Losonczy), three members of the Smallholders' Party (Tildy, Béla Kovács and István Szabó), three Social Democrats (Kéthly, Gyula Keleman, Joseph Fischer), and two Petőfi Peasants (István Bibó and Farkas).
Pál Maléter was appointed minister of defense. Khrushchev became increasingly concerned about these developments and on 4 November 1956 sent the Red Army into Hungary. Soviet tanks immediately captured Hungary's airfields, highway junctions and bridges. Fighting took place all over the country, and the Hungarian forces were quickly defeated. During the Hungarian Uprising, an estimated 20,000 people were killed, nearly all during the Soviet intervention. Nagy was arrested and imprisoned until his execution in 1958. Other government ministers or supporters who were either executed or died in captivity include Maléter, Losonczy, Attila Szigethy and Miklós Gimes.
Post-revolution Kádár era (1956–1989) Once he was in power, Kádár led an attack against revolutionaries. 21,600 mavericks (democrats, liberals, and reformist communists alike) were imprisoned, 13,000 interned, and 400 killed. But in the early 1960s, Kádár announced a new policy under the motto of "He who is not against us is with us," a modification of Rákosi's statement, "He who is not with us is against us". He declared a general amnesty, gradually curbed some of the excesses of the secret police, and introduced a relatively liberal cultural and economic course aimed at overcoming the post-1956 hostility towards him and his regime. In 1966, the central committee approved the "
New Economic Mechanism", through which it sought to rebuild the economy, increase productivity, make Hungary more competitive in world markets, and create prosperity to ensure political stability. Over the next two decades of relative domestic quiet, Kádár's government responded alternately to pressures for minor political and economic reforms as well as to counter-pressures from reform opponents. By the early 1980s, it had achieved some lasting economic reforms and limited political liberalization and pursued a foreign policy that encouraged more trade with the West. Nevertheless, the New Economic Mechanism led to mounting foreign debt that was incurred in order to shore up unprofitable industries. Hungary's transition to a Western-style democracy was one of the smoothest among the former
Soviet bloc. By late 1988, activists within the party and bureaucracy and Budapest-based intellectuals were increasing pressure for change. Some of these became reform socialists, while others began movements which developed into parties. Young liberals formed the Federation of Young Democrats (
Fidesz); a core from the so-called democratic opposition formed the
Alliance of Free Democrats (SZDSZ), and the national opposition established the
Hungarian Democratic Forum (MDF). Civic activism intensified to a level not seen since the 1956 revolution.
End of communism In 1988, Kádár was replaced as general secretary of the Communist Party, and reform communist leader
Imre Pozsgay was admitted to the
politburo. In 1989, the Parliament adopted a "democracy package" that included trade-union pluralism; freedom of association, assembly, and the press; a new electoral law; and in October 1989 a radical revision of the constitution, among others. Since then, Hungary has reformed its economy and increased its connections with western Europe. It became a member of the
European Union in 2004. A central committee plenum in February 1989 endorsed in principle the multiparty political system and the characterization of the October 1956 revolution as a "popular uprising," in the words of Pozsgay, whose reform movement had been gathering strength as Communist Party membership declined dramatically. Kádár's major political rivals then cooperated to move the country gradually to democracy. The Soviet Union reduced its involvement by signing an agreement in April 1989 to withdraw
Soviet forces by June 1991. National unity culminated in June 1989, as the country re-buried Nagy, his associates, and, symbolically, all other victims of the 1956 revolution. A
Hungarian National Round Table, comprising representatives of the new parties and some re-created old parties (such as the Smallholders and Social Democrats), the Communist Party, and different social groups, met in late summer 1989 to discuss major changes to the Hungarian constitution in preparation for free elections and the transition to a fully free and democratic political system. In October 1989, the Communist Party convened its last congress and re-established itself as the
Hungarian Socialist Party. In a historic session held 16–20 October 1989, the Parliament adopted legislation providing for multi-party parliamentary elections and a direct presidential election. The legislation transformed Hungary from a People's Republic into the Republic of Hungary, guaranteed human and civil rights, and created an institutional structure that ensured
separation of powers among the judicial, executive, and legislative branches of government. On the anniversary of the
1956 Revolution, 23 October, the Hungarian Republic was officially declared by the provisional President,
Mátyás Szűrös. The
revised constitution also championed the "values of bourgeois democracy and democratic socialism" and gave equal status to public and
private property.
Third Republic (since 1989) Foundation The first free parliamentary election, held
on March 20, 1990, was effectively a
plebiscite on communism. The
revitalized and reformed communists performed poorly. Populist, centre-right, and liberal parties fared best. Under Prime Minister
József Antall, the MDF formed a center-right coalition government with the
Independent Smallholders' Party and the
Christian Democratic People's Party to command a 60% majority in the parliament. By June 1991, the Soviet troops (
Southern Group of Forces) left Hungary. The total number of Soviet military and civilian personnel stationed in Hungary was around 100,000, having at their disposal approximately 27,000 military equipment. The withdrawal was performed with 35,000 railway cars. The last units commanded by general
Viktor Silov crossed the
Hungarian-Ukrainian border at
Záhony-
Chop. Péter Boross (* 1928) succeeded as prime minister after Antall died in December 1993. The Antall / Boross coalition governments struggled to create a reasonably well-functioning
parliamentary democracy in a
market economy, and to manage the related political, social and economic crises resulting from the collapse of the former Communist system and the
Eastern Bloc. The massive decline in living standards led to a massive loss of political support. In the
second round of the May 1994 election, the Socialists got 45.3% of votes and 54% of the seats (with the new prime minister,
Gyula Horn) after a campaign focused largely on economic issues and the substantial decline in living standards since 1990. This signaled a wish to turn back to the relative security and stability of the socialist era, but voters rejected both right and left-wing platforms. After its disappointing result in the election, leadership of the
Fidesz party opted for an ideological shift from a liberal to a conservative party. This caused a severe split in the membership and many members left for the other liberal party, the
SZDSZ, which formed a coalition with the socialists, leading to a more than two-thirds majority.
Economic reform The coalition was influenced by the socialism of Horn, by the economic focus of its technocrats (who had been Western-educated in the 1970s and 1980s) and ex-cadre entrepreneur supporters, and by its liberal coalition partner, the SZDSZ. Facing the threat of state bankruptcy, Horn initiated economic reforms and aggressive privatization of state enterprises to multinational companies in return for expectations of investment (in the form of reconstruction, expansion and modernization). The socialist-liberal government adopted a fiscal austerity program, the
Bokros package in 1995, which had dramatic consequences for social stability and quality of life. The government introduced post-secondary tuition fees and partially privatized state services but supported science both directly and indirectly through the private sector. The government pursued a foreign policy of integration with Euro-Atlantic institutions and reconciliation with neighboring countries. Critics argued that the policies of the ruling coalition were more right-wing than those of the previous right-wing government had been. The Bokros package and efforts at privatizations were unpopular with voters, as were rising crime rates, allegations of government corruption, and an attempt to restart the unpopular program of
building a dam on the Danube. This dissatisfaction among voters resulted in a change of government following the
1998 parliamentary elections. After a disappointing result in the 1994 elections, Fidesz under the presidency of
Viktor Orbán had changed its political position from liberal to
national conservative, adding "Hungarian Civic Party" (
Magyar Polgári Párt) to its shortened name. The conservative turn caused a severe split in the membership.
Péter Molnár left the party, as well as
Gábor Fodor and Klára Ungár, who joined the SZDSZ. Orbán's Fidesz party gained the plurality of parliamentary seats in the 1998 election and forged a coalition with the Smallholders and the Democratic Forum.
First cabinet of Viktor Orbán: 1998–2002 The government led by Orbán promised to stimulate faster growth, curb inflation, and lower taxes. It inherited an economy with positive economic indicators, including a growing export-surplus. The government abolished tuition fees and aimed to create good market conditions for small businesses and to encourage local production with domestic resources. In terms of foreign policy, the Orbán administration continued to pursue Euro-Atlantic integration as its first priority but was a more vocal advocate of minority rights for ethnic Hungarians abroad than the previous government had been. In the
November 1997 referendum, 85.33% of the voters approved joining the
NATO. Since 12 March 1999, Hungary, Poland and the
Czech Republic are NATO members (first round of the
NATO enlargement). In
2002, the
European Union agreed to admit Hungary along with 9 other countries as members on 1 January 2004 (→
2004 enlargement of the European Union). Fidesz was criticized by its adversaries for the party's presentation of history, particularly the 1989 fall of communism. While Fidesz suggested that the Socialist party is the moral and legal successor to the hated
state party of the Communist past, the socialists asserted that they were in fact those who had pushed for change from within, deriding Fidesz members for crediting themselves as the sole creators and heirs of the fall of communism. In the
April 2002 election the MSZP/SZDSZ left-wing coalition narrowly beat the Fidesz / MDF right-wing coalition in a fierce political fight, with record-high 73%
voter turnout.
Péter Medgyessy became prime minister. On 29 September 2004, he was followed by
Ferenc Gyurcsány.
MSZP: 2002–2010 Under the socialist-liberal government, the economic balance of the Hungarian economy started a free fall, while quality of life, infrastructure and technology improved. On 1 May 2004, Hungary and nine other countries
became new members of the EU. In the
election of April 2006, Hungary decided to re-elect its government for the first time since 1989, though with Prime Minister
Ferenc Gyurcsány. The government presented plans to reach balance and sustainable economic growth by removing subsidies to the growth of standard of living, which it had not mentioned during its electoral campaign. A
leaked speech was followed by mass protests against the Gyurcsány government between 17 September – 23 October 2006. It was the first sustained protest in Hungary since 1989. From 2007, when increased inflation caused by tax increases reduced the standard of living, there was a complete restructuring of the state administration, energy sector, relations with private business, health sector, and social welfare. Members of affected professional unions said the measures were uncompromising and undemocratic. Hungary joined the
Schengen Area at the end of 2007. In 2008, the coalition broke up over the disagreement whether the insurance side of the health sector should be state-owned and its policies decided by the state (as preferred by the Socialists) or by private companies (as preferred by the Liberals). This conflict was followed by a successful public referendum, initiated by Fidesz, calling for the abolition of university tuition fees, direct payments by insured patients on receiving medical attention, and daily fees at hospital by insured patients. This effectively stopped the restructuring of health care, while it remained completely publicly owned. Because of this, the liberals left the coalition, and from then on the socialists governed as a minority. The
2008 financial crisis caused further budgetary constraints. After Gyurcsány's resignation, the socialists put forward a "government of experts" under
Gordon Bajnai in March 2009, which would only make essential macroeconomic decisions.
Orbán governments: 2010– , the
Prime Minister of Hungary (1998–2002, 2010–present) Fidesz regained power in the
2010 Hungarian parliamentary election in a landslide, winning two-thirds of the seats in Parliament. In the autumn municipal elections, Fidesz achieved a majority in almost all local and mayoral elections, winning the traditional strongholds of the liberal parties. This started the System of National Cooperation (NER). The Second Orbán Government promulgated the new
Constitution of Hungary, adopted in 2011 and in force since 1 January 2012. The main goal of the government was to restart economic growth. It introduced a
flat tax system for income tax at 16% for everyone. After the new constitution came into effect, Orbán, according to his critics, gradually consolidated power and began the process of making Hungary less democratic. Orbán referred to Hungary as an "illiberal state." Orbán discarded the idea of
welfare state, stating that the Hungarian economy must be
workfare-based. By 2014, significant improvements were made in decreasing unemployment (from 11.4% in 2010), to 7.1% in 2014, and generating economic growth (reaching 3.5% in 2014, the top value among EU member states); the growth has been very unequal: the wealth of the top 20% of the society grew significantly, while the ratio of people living below poverty line increased from 33% in 2010 to 40% in 2014. The government centralized the education system and started a multiple-year-long program for increasing the salaries of teachers and health professionals. In the
2014 Hungarian parliamentary election, Fidesz again won a supermajority but only by a one-MP margin. In February 2015, a by-election was held in the city of Veszprém, where an opposition-nominated MP was elected, thus Fidesz lost its supermajority. Under the Third Orbán Government, the
2015 European migrant crisis affected Hungary as one of the countries with a southern
external border of the European Union. The government erected the
Hungarian border barrier along its border with Serbia and Croatia in summer 2015. Attempts by migrants to cross the barrier using force were met with riot police in September 2015, and the barrier was reinforced in 2016. The EU's
Justice and Home Affairs Council approved a migrant quota plan. Following the decision, Hungary and Slovakia took legal action over EU's mandatory migrant quotas at the
European Court of Justice in
Luxembourg City. The government also called for the
2016 Hungarian migrant quota referendum in October. While an overwhelming majority (98%) of those voting rejected the EU's migrant quotas, voter turnout at 44% was below the 50% that would have been required for the referendum to be considered valid. In the
2018 Hungarian parliamentary election,
Fidesz–KDNP again won a supermajority, with no change in the numbers of seats held from the previous election. The Fourth Orbán Government was formed on 18 May 2018. In October 2019, the opposition won the
mayoral election in the capital, Budapest, meaning Prime Minister Orbán and the Fidesz–KDNP governing coalition got their first major electoral blow since 2006. In March 2022, the Hungarian parliament chose
Katalin Novák, a close ally of Orbán, as the first female
president of Hungary for the mainly ceremonial post. In the
2022 Hungarian parliamentary election a month later, Orbán won a fourth consecutive term in office. Fidesz secured another two-thirds majority in parliament. With 54.13% of the popular vote, Fidesz received the highest vote share by any party since the
Fall of Communism in 1989. In September 2022, the
Ninth European Parliament passed a resolution saying Hungary is an
electoral autocracy and can no longer be considered a full democracy. Relations between Hungary and its Western partners have strained, because Orban's government has maintained relations with Russia, despite
sanctions against Russia after the
2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. On 26 February 2024, Hungary's parliament elected
Tamás Sulyok as the new president of Hungary, following the resignation of his predecessor. With the
2026 parliamentary elections, held on 12 April 2026, Orbans grip on power came to an abrupt end with the election of former Fidesz and cabinet member
Péter Magyar, who's
Tisza Party won a
landslide victory, gaining a two-thirds
supermajority in the National Assembly and the largest
mandate ever won by a party in a free
Hungarian election. The result received significant attention all over Europe and the world, as Orban had been considered a center stage figure in
global right wing populism and had received
endorsements form far right politicians all over the world such as
US-President Donald Trump whose
Vice President JD Vance flew to Hungary personally to endorse Fidesz,
Javier Milei, the
President of Argentina, the leader of the German
extremist AfD party
Alice Weidel and the
French rightwing politician
Marine Le-Pen. It was therefore widely celebrated by prodemocratic movements and liberal parties, who considered it a proof of the finite nature of the
world wide surge of far right populism expressed hopes for the reinstatement of democratic norms and institutions in Hungary as well as the mending of
Hungary-EU relations. ==See also==