Dezső Bánffy
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Baron Dezső Bánffy de Losoncz |
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| Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Hungary | |
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In office 14 January 1895 – 26 February 1899 |
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| Monarch | Francis Joseph I |
| Preceded by | Sándor Wekerle |
| Succeeded by | Kálmán Széll |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
28 October 1843 Kolozsvár, Kingdom of Hungary (today Cluj-Napoca, Romania) |
| Died | 24 May 1911 (aged 67) Budapest, Hungary |
| Nationality | Hungarian |
| Spouse(s) | Mária Kemény de Magyargyerőmonostor (1844–1884) Ilona Máthé de Nagyenyed (1862–1911) |
| Children | Kazimir Hedvig Ferenc Alice Teodóra |
Baron Dezső Bánffy de Losonc (28 October 1843 – 24 May 1911) was a Hungarian politician who served as Prime Minister of Hungary from 1895 to 1899.
The son of Baron Dániel Bánffy and Anna Gyárfás, Dezső Bánffy was born in Kolozsvár, Hungary (now Cluj-Napoca, Romania) on 28 October 1843, and educated at the Berlin and Leipzig universities.
As lord lieutenant of the county of Belső-Szolnok, chief captain of Kővár and curator of the Reformed Church of Transylvania, Bánffy exercised considerable political influence outside parliament from 1875 onwards, but his public career may be said to have begun in 1892, when he became speaker of the house of deputies. As speaker he continued, however, to be a party-man (he had always been a member of the left-centre or government party) and materially assisted the government by his rulings. He was a stringent adversary of the radicals, and caused some sensation by absenting himself from the capital on the occasion of Lajos Kossuth's funeral on 1 April 1894.
On 14 January 1895, the king, after the fall of the Kálmán Széll ministry, entrusted him with the formation of a cabinet. His programme, in brief, was the carrying through of the church reform laws with all due regard to clerical susceptibilities, and the maintenance of the Composition of 1867, whilst fully guaranteeing the predominance of Hungary. He succeeded in carrying the remaining ecclesiastical bills through the Upper House, despite the vehement opposition of the papal nuncio Antonio Agliardi, a triumph which brought about the fall of Gustav Kálnoky, the minister for foreign affairs, but greatly strengthened the ministry in Hungary. In the ensuing elections of 1896 the government won a gigantic majority. The drastic electoral methods of Bánffy had, however, contributed somewhat to this result, and the corrupt practices were the pretext for the fierce opposition in the House which he henceforth had to encounter, though the measures which he now introduced (the Honved Officers' Schools Bill) would, in normal circumstances, have been received with general enthusiasm.
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