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Social Democratic Party (Hungary)
Encyclopedia
The Social Democratic Party (Hungary) often known as the "Historical" Social Democratic Party ("történelmi" Szociáldemokrata Párt, SZDP) is a Hungarian
political party that emerged following a split within the Hungarian Social Democratic Party
(MSZDP) in 1989. Both the SZDP and MSZDP lay claim to the same heritage: the Social Democratic Party which was part of a governing coalition in Hungary between 1945 and 1948, and a short period in 1956, which itself was renamed from the Hungarian Social Democratic Party, previously established in 1890. Traditional areas of support have been the industrial areas of Budapest, especially Obuda
, Pesterzsébet
and Angyalföld
.
as part of Austria-Hungary
:
Hungary
as an independent country:
. The MSZDP leadership entered into government as part of an unsuccessful post-war socialist administration. Revolution and counter-revolution resulted in a brutal backlash against opposing political camps. This led to both the Red Terror
and the White Terror
. Many MSZDP supporters were killed during the White Terror
. The entire left-wing boycotted the elections of 1920, which resulted in a right-wing victory and continued right-wing government for the inter-war period.
The MSZDP made their peace with Horthy's government in 1921 with the Bethlen-Peyer pact. More radical elements were suppressed, and trade union activity was increasingly driven underground during the 1930s. After 1939, the party became officially known as the SZDP, dropping the "Magyarorszagi" moniker. The environment became increasingly hostile during the Second World War and activity virtually drained to a halt. With the Nazi takeover of Hungary in 1944, the party was declared illegal. Many of the leadership were executed, with the remainder imprisoned or driven underground.
The SZDP fought the election of November 1945, finishing in a strong second place. From 1945-1948, the SZDP governed in association with the Smallholders Party. They were placed under increasing pressure to cooperate with the Hungarian Communist Party
. For the 1947 elections, the SZDP was forced to join a "workers' bloc" with the Communists. Eventually, the right-wing were forcibly excluded from the SZDP, and in 1948 the remnant was forced to merge with the Communists to form the Soviet-sponsored Hungarian Working People's Party.
The SZDP re-emerged defiantly in the 1956 revolution. Under the leadership of Anna Kéthly
, Gyula Keleman and Joseph Fischer the MSZDP took a prominent role in Imre Nagy
's Provisional Government. For the first time in many years the party newspaper "Népszava
" was published independently. Following the suppression of the Revolution in 1956 and 1957, the MSZDP disappeared again under state repression, and much of the leadership escaped into exile.
The gradual softening of the official government policies in Hungary in the 1970s and 1980s led to many in the governing Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party
(MSZMP) being associated with reform communism. This was sometimes not easily distinguishable from social democracy
.
, such as Róbert Gábor, Sándor Bácskai and Ernő Nagy.
Electorally, the SZDP have remained a marginal party, with some limited success in local elections. Under the co-leadership of Mátyás Szűrös
from 2003-2005 the party took a sharp turn towards populism and the right-wing Fidesz party. By the time Szűrös was finally forced out in 2005 the party had suffered some loss in credibility, which it has been attempting to restore under the leadership of Tibor Sztankovánzki.
In April 2009, the party announced that Anna Petrasovits, leader of the MSZDP from 1989-1992 would lead the party's list for the European Parliament
elections in June 2009.
The Historical Social Democrats argue that they are in the historical tradition of Hungarian social democracy
as they have retained their distance from the Hungarian Socialist Party
(MSZP) - whilst the MSZDP has formed a close, shared platform with the MSZP. The MSZP are regarded by the SZDP as a post-communist formation and not within the social democratic tradition.
Ideologically, the SZDP is closer to what is described as democratic socialism
in the United Kingdom
, and aims to provide a democratic critique of capitalism. Anna Kéthly
is regarded as one of the historical leading figures, providing the SZDP with its own philosophy of ethical social democracy
. The party is opposed to wholesale privatisation and "extreme" neoliberalism, and is committed to building up the "indigenous" Hungarian economy.
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
political party that emerged following a split within the Hungarian Social Democratic Party
Hungarian Social Democratic Party
The Hungarian Social Democratic Party is a political party in Hungary. Both the MSZDP and SZDP lay claim to the same heritage: the Social Democratic Party which was part of a governing coalition in Hungary between 1945 and 1948, and a short period in 1956, which itself was renamed from the...
(MSZDP) in 1989. Both the SZDP and MSZDP lay claim to the same heritage: the Social Democratic Party which was part of a governing coalition in Hungary between 1945 and 1948, and a short period in 1956, which itself was renamed from the Hungarian Social Democratic Party, previously established in 1890. Traditional areas of support have been the industrial areas of Budapest, especially Obuda
Óbuda
Óbuda was a historical city in Hungary. United with Buda and Pest in 1873 it now forms part of District III-Óbuda-Békásmegyer of Budapest. The name means Old Buda in Hungarian...
, Pesterzsébet
Pesterzsébet
Pesterzsébet is the 20th district of Budapest, Hungary. It is located in the southern part of the capital and is the 17th biggest district in the city...
and Angyalföld
Angyalföld
Angyalföld is a neighbourhood in Budapest, Hungary. Administratively it belongs to District 13th. The traditionally working class neighbourhood went through a process of gentrification due to the office-building boom of the 1990s.- Location :...
.
Overview
HungaryHungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
as part of Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary , more formally known as the Kingdoms and Lands Represented in the Imperial Council and the Lands of the Holy Hungarian Crown of Saint Stephen, was a constitutional monarchic union between the crowns of the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary in...
:
- 1868–1890 The General Workers Association (Általános Munkásegylet)
- 1890–1918 The Hungarian Social Democratic Party (Magyarországi Szociáldemokrata Párt) - independent party
Hungary
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
as an independent country:
- 1918–1939 The Hungarian Social Democratic Party (Magyarországi Szociáldemokrata Párt) - independent party
- 1939–1948 The Social Democratic Party (Szociáldemokrata Párt) - merged with Hungarian Working Peoples Party
- October 1956 - November 1956 The Social Democratic Party (Szociáldemokrata Párt)
- 1989 Social Democratic Party (Szociáldemokrata Párt)
- 1997 Known as "Historical" Social Democratic Party („történelmi” Szociáldemokrata Párt)
Election results
- 1922 National Assembly: 17% - 26 seats
- 1926 National Assembly: 11.1% - 15 seats
- 1931 National Assembly: 11.0% - 14 seats
- 1935 National Assembly: 6.7% - 11 seats
- 1939 National Assembly: 3.4% - 5 seats
- 1945 National AssemblyHungarian parliamentary election, 1945The Hungarian parliamentary election of 1945 was held on 4 November of that year. It came at a turbulent moment in the country's history: World War II had had a devastating impact; the Soviet Union was occupying it, with the Hungarian Communist Party growing in numbers; a land reform that March had...
: 17.4% - 69 seats - 1947 National AssemblyHungarian parliamentary election, 1947The Hungarian parliamentary election of 1947 was held on 31 August of that year. The Hungarian Communist Party, which had lost the previous election, consolidated its power in the interim using salami tactics. This fact, combined with the weakening of the opposition and a revised electoral law, led...
: 14.9% - 67 seats
European Parliamentary Elections
- European Parliament election, 2004 (Hungary)European Parliament election, 2004 (Hungary)The European Parliament election of 2004 in Hungary was the election of MEP representing Hungary constituency for the 2004-2009 term of the European Parliament. It was part of the wider 2004 European election.The vote took place on 13 June...
: 0.4% - 0 seats
History up to 1989
The party grew in power and influence until the First World War, which resulted in the party fracturing into pro-war and anti-war factions. The chaos which followed the war resulted in the collapse of the Dual MonarchyDual monarchy
Dual monarchy occurs when two separate kingdoms are ruled by the same monarch, follow the same foreign policy, exist in a customs union with each other and have a combined military but are otherwise self-governing...
. The MSZDP leadership entered into government as part of an unsuccessful post-war socialist administration. Revolution and counter-revolution resulted in a brutal backlash against opposing political camps. This led to both the Red Terror
Red Terror
The Red Terror in Soviet Russia was the campaign of mass arrests and executions conducted by the Bolshevik government. In Soviet historiography, the Red Terror is described as having been officially announced on September 2, 1918 by Yakov Sverdlov and ended about October 1918...
and the White Terror
White Terror
White Terror is the violence carried out by reactionary groups as part of a counter-revolution. In particular, during the 20th century, in several countries the term White Terror was applied to acts of violence against real or suspected socialists and communists.-Historical origin: the French...
. Many MSZDP supporters were killed during the White Terror
White Terror
White Terror is the violence carried out by reactionary groups as part of a counter-revolution. In particular, during the 20th century, in several countries the term White Terror was applied to acts of violence against real or suspected socialists and communists.-Historical origin: the French...
. The entire left-wing boycotted the elections of 1920, which resulted in a right-wing victory and continued right-wing government for the inter-war period.
The MSZDP made their peace with Horthy's government in 1921 with the Bethlen-Peyer pact. More radical elements were suppressed, and trade union activity was increasingly driven underground during the 1930s. After 1939, the party became officially known as the SZDP, dropping the "Magyarorszagi" moniker. The environment became increasingly hostile during the Second World War and activity virtually drained to a halt. With the Nazi takeover of Hungary in 1944, the party was declared illegal. Many of the leadership were executed, with the remainder imprisoned or driven underground.
The SZDP fought the election of November 1945, finishing in a strong second place. From 1945-1948, the SZDP governed in association with the Smallholders Party. They were placed under increasing pressure to cooperate with the Hungarian Communist Party
Hungarian Communist Party
The Communist Party of Hungary , renamed Hungarian Communist Party in 1945, was founded on November 24, 1918, and was in power in Hungary briefly from March to August 1919 under Béla Kun and the Hungarian Soviet Republic. The communist government was overthrown by the Romanian Army and driven...
. For the 1947 elections, the SZDP was forced to join a "workers' bloc" with the Communists. Eventually, the right-wing were forcibly excluded from the SZDP, and in 1948 the remnant was forced to merge with the Communists to form the Soviet-sponsored Hungarian Working People's Party.
The SZDP re-emerged defiantly in the 1956 revolution. Under the leadership of Anna Kéthly
Anna Kéthly
Anna Kéthly , was a Hungarian Social Democrat politician. She was one of nine children born into a poor family in Budapest, Hungary. At the age of fifteen she started working in a garment factory but soon found more appealing work in the editorial office of a women's magazine and this gave her...
, Gyula Keleman and Joseph Fischer the MSZDP took a prominent role in Imre Nagy
Imre Nagy
Imre Nagy was a Hungarian communist politician who was appointed Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the People's Republic of Hungary on two occasions...
's Provisional Government. For the first time in many years the party newspaper "Népszava
Népszava
Népszava is a Social-democratic newspaper established in 1877 in Budapest by Viktor Külföldi. It was the official newspaper of the Hungarian Social Democratic Party until 1948....
" was published independently. Following the suppression of the Revolution in 1956 and 1957, the MSZDP disappeared again under state repression, and much of the leadership escaped into exile.
The gradual softening of the official government policies in Hungary in the 1970s and 1980s led to many in the governing Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party
Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party
The Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party was the ruling Marxist–Leninist party of Hungary between 1956 and 1989. It was organised from elements of the Hungarian Working People's Party during the 1956 Hungarian Revolution...
(MSZMP) being associated with reform communism. This was sometimes not easily distinguishable from social democracy
Social democracy
Social democracy is a political ideology of the center-left on the political spectrum. Social democracy is officially a form of evolutionary reformist socialism. It supports class collaboration as the course to achieve socialism...
.
History after the transition
Originally a very small breakaway from the MSZDP, Imre Takács and the other founders were joined by many individuals who left the MSZDP in 1997. They objected to the increasingly centralised leadership style of László Kapolyi, by now funding and leading the MSZDP into a close association with the formerly communist MSZP. Among this group of new recruits were a number of veterans from the post-war coalition of 1945-1948 and the government of Imre NagyImre Nagy
Imre Nagy was a Hungarian communist politician who was appointed Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the People's Republic of Hungary on two occasions...
, such as Róbert Gábor, Sándor Bácskai and Ernő Nagy.
Electorally, the SZDP have remained a marginal party, with some limited success in local elections. Under the co-leadership of Mátyás Szűrös
Mátyás Szurös
Mátyás Szűrös is a Hungarian politician. He served as provisional President of the Republic from October 18, 1989–May 2, 1990. His presidency occurred during Hungary's transition from communist to democratic government...
from 2003-2005 the party took a sharp turn towards populism and the right-wing Fidesz party. By the time Szűrös was finally forced out in 2005 the party had suffered some loss in credibility, which it has been attempting to restore under the leadership of Tibor Sztankovánzki.
In April 2009, the party announced that Anna Petrasovits, leader of the MSZDP from 1989-1992 would lead the party's list for the European Parliament
European Parliament
The European Parliament is the directly elected parliamentary institution of the European Union . Together with the Council of the European Union and the Commission, it exercises the legislative function of the EU and it has been described as one of the most powerful legislatures in the world...
elections in June 2009.
Ideology
Both the Social Democratic Party and the Hungarian Social Democratic Party claim to be the natural successors to the Social Democratic Party which existed before 1948 and the imposition of one-party rule in Hungary.The Historical Social Democrats argue that they are in the historical tradition of Hungarian social democracy
Social democracy
Social democracy is a political ideology of the center-left on the political spectrum. Social democracy is officially a form of evolutionary reformist socialism. It supports class collaboration as the course to achieve socialism...
as they have retained their distance from the Hungarian Socialist Party
Hungarian Socialist Party
The Hungarian Socialist Party describes itself as a social democratic party in Hungary. It is the partial successor of the communist Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party , which ruled Hungary between 1956 and 1989. The decision to declare the party a successor of the MSZMP was controversial, and...
(MSZP) - whilst the MSZDP has formed a close, shared platform with the MSZP. The MSZP are regarded by the SZDP as a post-communist formation and not within the social democratic tradition.
Ideologically, the SZDP is closer to what is described as democratic socialism
Democratic socialism
Democratic socialism is a description used by various socialist movements and organizations to emphasize the democratic character of their political orientation...
in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, and aims to provide a democratic critique of capitalism. Anna Kéthly
Anna Kéthly
Anna Kéthly , was a Hungarian Social Democrat politician. She was one of nine children born into a poor family in Budapest, Hungary. At the age of fifteen she started working in a garment factory but soon found more appealing work in the editorial office of a women's magazine and this gave her...
is regarded as one of the historical leading figures, providing the SZDP with its own philosophy of ethical social democracy
Social democracy
Social democracy is a political ideology of the center-left on the political spectrum. Social democracy is officially a form of evolutionary reformist socialism. It supports class collaboration as the course to achieve socialism...
. The party is opposed to wholesale privatisation and "extreme" neoliberalism, and is committed to building up the "indigenous" Hungarian economy.