Independent Hungarian Democratic Party
|
Independent Hungarian Democratic Party
Független Magyar Demokrata Párt |
|
|---|---|
| First leader | István Balogh |
| Last leader | Gyula Kovár |
| Founded | 20 July 1947 (1st) 5 May 1989 (2nd) |
| Dissolved | 1949 (officially existed) (1st) 28 January 2011 (2nd) |
| Split from | Independent Smallholders' Party |
| Newspaper |
Magyar Nemzet Magyar Vasárnap |
| Youth wing | Independent Hungarian Youth |
| Ideology | Liberalism |
| Political position | Centre |
The Independent Hungarian Democratic Party (Hungarian: Független Magyar Demokrata Párt, FMDP) was a political party in Hungary in the period after World War II. The party was revived after the end of communism in 1989–90, but remained unsuccessful.
The party was founded on 20 July 1947, shortly before the election that year. Its leader was István Balogh, a Roman Catholic cleric, who, prior that, resigned as Secretary-General of the Independent Smallholders, Agrarian Workers and Civic Party (FKGP) and quit the party along with his supporters (e.g. journalist György Parragi) on 3 July 1947. The Communists led by Mátyás Rákosi allowed for FMDP to contest the 1947 election for the purpose of weakening the FKGP, Balogh and Rákosi had several meetings on that subject. Ex-National Peasant Party (NPP) politician Imre Kovács also joined the FMDP on 15 August 1947. In the 1947 parliamentary election, held on 31 August, the FMDP won 18 of the 411 seats in Parliament.
The FMDP focused on the interests of urban middle class and intellectuals in Budapest, it barely had rural party organizations and branches. The party's short-lived youth wing was the Independent Hungarian Youth, led by Sándor Győriványi. The party supported the creation of bourgeois democracy while opposed the Soviet-type economic model, according to its programme. Despite this, the FMDP was the only opposition party which voted in favor of the Communists' three-year plan, nevertheless it rejected the nationalization of banks. Balogh's party found itself in a political vacuum, as the Left Bloc considered it as a rival in acquisition of laborers' votes, while the anti-Communist Hungarian Independence Party (MFP) and Democratic People's Party (DNP) refused to cooperate with Balogh due to his collaborative relationship with the Hungarian Communist Party (MKP) and its leader Rákosi. After the election, the MKP and the Hungarian Social Democratic Party (MSZDP) prevented that the FMDP merged into the FKGP. Its relation with the Roman Catholic Church in Hungary also became frosty, because the FMDP did not speak out against the nationalization of parochial schools.
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