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Béla vitéz Imrédy de Ómoravicza (; 29 December 1891 – 28 February 1946) was
Prime Minister of Hungary The prime minister of Hungary () is the head of government of Hungary. The prime minister and the government of Hungary, Cabinet are collectively accountability, accountable for their policies and actions to the National Assembly (Hungary), Par ...
from 1938 to 1939. Born in
Budapest Budapest is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns of Hungary, most populous city of Hungary. It is the List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, tenth-largest city in the European Union by popul ...
to a
Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...
family, Imrédy studied law as a young man before he started working for the Hungarian Ministry of Finance. Eventually becoming a skilled economist and financier, Imrédy was made Director of the Hungarian National Bank in 1928. In 1932, he was appointed
Minister of Finance A ministry of finance is a ministry or other government agency in charge of government finance, fiscal policy, and financial regulation. It is headed by a finance minister, an executive or cabinet position . A ministry of finance's portfolio ...
under the fascist Prime Minister Gyula Gömbös. After resigning in 1935, Imrédy became President of the
Hungarian National Bank The Hungarian National Bank ( , MNB) is the central bank of Hungary and as such part of the European System of Central Banks (ESCB). It was established in 1924 as a successor entity of the Austro-Hungarian Bank, under the economic assistance ...
. Extremely ambitious, Imrédy was known to hold
right wing Right-wing politics is the range of Ideology#Political ideologies, political ideologies that view certain social orders and Social stratification, hierarchies as inevitable, natural, normal, or desirable, typically supporting this position b ...
views on matters of domestic and social policy. On matters of foreign policy, Imrédy was pro-British, a sentiment which was to help him gain the position of Minister of Economic Coordination under Prime Minister Kálmán Darányi. When Darányi resigned in May 1938, Imrédy was appointed
prime minister A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...
by
Regent In a monarchy, a regent () is a person appointed to govern a state because the actual monarch is a minor, absent, incapacitated or unable to discharge their powers and duties, or the throne is vacant and a new monarch has not yet been dete ...
Miklós Horthy Miklós Horthy de Nagybánya (18 June 1868 – 9 February 1957) was a Hungarian admiral and statesman who was the Regent of Hungary, regent of the Kingdom of Hungary (1920–1946), Kingdom of Hungary Hungary between the World Wars, during the ...
. Imrédy's attempts to improve Hungary's diplomatic relations with Britain initially made him very unpopular with
Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...
and
Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...
. Imrédy realized that he could not afford to alienate the two fascist powers on a long term basis, however, and from the autumn of 1938 onward his foreign policy became increasingly pro-German and pro-Italian. Imrédy also worked to gain a base of power in Hungarian right wing politics, founding the Movement of Hungarian Life. He was quick to suppress any rivals in his quest for power, and influential
fascists Fascism ( ) is a far-right, authoritarian, and ultranationalist political ideology and movement. It is characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural social h ...
such as
Ferenc Szálasi Ferenc Szálasi (; 6 January 1897 – 12 March 1946) was a Hungarian military officer, politician, Nazi sympathizer and founder of the far-right Arrow Cross Party who List of prime ministers of Hungary, headed the government of Hungary duri ...
were harassed by Imrédy's administration. As Imrédy drifted further to the right, he proposed that the government be reorganized along
totalitarian Totalitarianism is a political system and a form of government that prohibits opposition from political parties, disregards and outlaws the political claims of individual and group opposition to the state, and completely controls the public sph ...
lines and enacted legislation that restricted the freedom of the press and caused many
Jews Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...
to suffer economically. In February 1939, Imrédy's moderate political opponents, angered at his growing compliancy to Germany and Hungary's right wing, presented evidence to Regent Horthy that suggested Imrédy's great-grandfather was Jewish. When Horthy confronted Imrédy with the evidence, Imrédy could not deny the claims about his heritage and resigned the premiership on 13 February 1939. Imrédy served in the Hungarian Army for a time in 1940, and in October of that year he founded the pro-fascist,
Anti-Semitic Antisemitism or Jew-hatred is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who harbours it is called an antisemite. Whether antisemitism is considered a form of racism depends on the school of thought. Antisemi ...
Party of Hungarian Renewal. When German troops occupied Hungary in 1944, Imrédy was German
Plenipotentiary A ''plenipotentiary'' (from the Latin ''plenus'' "full" and ''potens'' "powerful") is a diplomat who has full powers—authorization to sign a treaty or convention on behalf of a sovereign. When used as a noun more generally, the word can als ...
Edmund Veesenmayer’s top choice to replace Miklós Kállay as prime minister. Horthy could not be swayed to accept the idea, however, and
Döme Sztójay Döme Sztójay ( sr-cyr, Димитрије Стојаковић, 5 January 1883 – 22 August 1946) was a Hungarian soldier and diplomat of Serb origin, who served as Prime Minister of Hungary in 1944, during World War II. Biography Born in ...
was made prime minister instead. Imrédy became Sztójay's Minister of Economic Coordination in May 1944, but he was forced to resign in August. After German forces were driven out of Hungary, Imrédy was arrested and tried by a People's Tribunal in November 1945. Found guilty of war crimes and collaboration with the
Nazis Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...
, he was sentenced to death and executed by a firing squad in the courtyard of the jail in Markó street, Budapest, in 1946.


References


Magyar életrajzi lexikon


SZTE Egyetemi Könyvtár Hadtörténeti gyűjtemény
Az ezenanapon.hu összefoglalója





Fotó Imrédy Béláról
A kivégzés előtti percekben


Imrédy Béla csodás forradalma
mult-kor.hu


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Imredy, Bela 1891 births 1946 deaths Politicians from Budapest Executed prime ministers Hungarian fascists Hungarian nobility Prime ministers of Hungary Ministers of foreign affairs of Hungary Finance ministers of Hungary Governors of the Hungarian National Bank Hungarian people of World War II Hungarian people of Jewish descent Executed Hungarian collaborators with Nazi Germany People executed by Hungary by firing squad Hungarian anti-communists Heads of government convicted of war crimes Heads of government who were later imprisoned Unity Party (Hungary) politicians