The Unity Party (), officially the Catholic-Protestant Farmers, Smallholders, and Civic Party or Christian Farmers, Smallholders and Civic Party (), was the

ruling party The ruling party or governing party in a democratic parliamentary or presidential system is the political party or coalition holding a majority of elected positions in a parliament, in the case of parliamentary systems, or holding the executive ...

Kingdom of Hungary The Kingdom of Hungary was a monarchy in Central Europe that existed for nearly a millennium, from 1000 to 1946 and was a key part of the Habsburg monarchy from 1526-1918. The Principality of Hungary emerged as a Christian kingdom upon the Coro ...

from 1922 to 1944. It was founded in early 1922, and in the same year they won an electoral landslide in the

parliamentary election A general election is an electoral process to choose most or all members of a governing body at the same time. They are distinct from by-elections, which fill individual seats that have become vacant between general elections. General elections ...

. Initially, the party was

conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy and ideology that seeks to promote and preserve traditional institutions, customs, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civiliza ...

and agrarian but in the early 1930s its

fascist 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 soci ...

faction grew to become the largest, and shortly after they established a militia. The main leader of the fascist faction was

Gyula Gömbös Gyula Gömbös de Jákfa (26 December 1886 – 6 October 1936) was a Hungarian military officer and politician who served as Prime Minister of Hungary from 1 October 1932 to his death. Background Gömbös was born in Murga, Tolna County, King ...

, who served as the prime minister from 1932 to 1936. When he came to power, the party was renamed to National Unity Party (). Gömbös declared the party's intention to achieve "total control of the nation's social life". In the 1935 Hungarian Election, Gömbös promoted the creation of a "unitary Hungarian nation with no class distinctions". The party won a huge majority of the seats of the Hungarian parliament in the Hungarian election of May 1939.Peter F. Sugar, Péter Hanák. ''A History of Hungary.'' First paperback edition. Bloomington, Indiana, USA: Indiana University Press, 1994. Pp. 341. It won 72 percent of the parliament's seats and won 49 percent of the popular vote in the election.Georgi Karasimeonov. Cleavages, parties, and voters: studies from Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Romania. Greenwood Publishing Group, 1999. p. 70. This was a major breakthrough for the

far-right Far-right politics, often termed right-wing extremism, encompasses a range of ideologies that are marked by ultraconservatism, authoritarianism, ultranationalism, and nativism. This political spectrum situates itself on the far end of the ...

in Hungary. The party promoted nationalist propaganda and some of its members sympathized with the Nazi

Arrow Cross Party The Arrow Cross Party (, , abbreviated NYKP) was a far-right Hungarian ultranationalist party led by Ferenc Szálasi, which formed a government in Hungary they named the Government of National Unity. They were in power from 15 October 1944 to ...

. In 1939, the party was renamed to the Party of Hungarian Life (). It was also called "the Government Party" since it was the governing party of the Kingdom of Hungary during the existence of the Horthy era. A faction of the most pro-Nazi members led by the party's former leader

Béla Imrédy Béla vitéz Imrédy de Ómoravicza (; 29 December 1891 – 28 February 1946) was Prime Minister of Hungary from 1938 to 1939. Born in Budapest to a Catholic family, Imrédy studied law as a young man before he started working for the Hungaria ...

split from the party October 1940 to form the (''Magyar Megújulás Pártja'') that sought to explicitly "solve" the " Jewish Problem."

Electoral results

National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the repr ...

References

{{Authority control Agrarian parties in Hungary Christian political parties in Hungary Conservative parties in Hungary Defunct political parties in Hungary Far-right political parties in Hungary Political parties established in 1922 Catholic political parties National conservative parties Nationalist parties in Hungary Fascist parties Corporatism