National Peasant Party Nemzeti Parasztpárt | |
|---|---|
.svg) | |
| First leader | Péter Veres |
| Last leader | Károly Dobszay |
| Founded | 29 June 1939(1st) 31 October 1956(2nd) 11 June 1989(3rd) |
| Dissolved | 1949 (officially existed) (1st) 4 November 1956(2nd) 15 June 1998(3rd) |
| Newspaper | Szabad Szó |
| Ideology | Agrarianism[1] Agrarian socialism Left-wing populism[1] Anti-capitalism[1] Hungarian nationalism[1] Anti-German sentiment[1] Factions: Anti-Sovietism[1] |
| Political position | Left-wing |
| Party flag | |
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Parliament |
TheNational Peasant Party (Hungarian:Nemzeti Parasztpárt, NPP) was a political party inHungary between 1939 and 1949. It was led by the writerPéter Veres. The party was revived for a short time during theHungarian Revolution of 1956 and after the end of communism in 1989–90.
The party was established in 1939, but was only formalised as an organisation on 19 September 1944.[2] It won 42 seats in theNational Interim Assembly elections in 1944. By the following year it had 170,000 members,[3] although it was reduced to 23 seats in theparliamentary elections that year. However, the following year the party won 36 of the 411 seats in theparliamentary elections.
For the1949 elections it ran as part of theCommunist-led Hungarian Independent People's Front, winning 39 seats.[4] The adoption of a new constitution in August 1949 saw the country became aone-party state, with the NPP being merged into the Communist-ledHungarian Working People's Party.[2][5]
Following theHungarian Revolution of 1956, the party was revived under the namePetőfi Party and served in the short-lived new government.[6] During thetransition to democracy (1989–90), members of the Péter Veres Society re-established the party under the nameHungarian People's Party (MNP) on 11 June 1989 and participated in theOpposition Round Table Talks. The MNP had high hopes regarding thefirst democratic elections in 1990, however they received only 0.8% of the vote. After that the presidium took the name ofHungarian People's Party–National Peasant Party. Shortly before the1994 parliamentary elections, two-thirds of the membership joined the National Democratic Alliance (NDSZ) led byZoltán Bíró andImre Pozsgay. The MNP–NPP was wiped out by the end of the decade.[7]
The party's main policy was land reform. It attracted support from the middle and lower classes in the countryside, as well as intellectuals in the provinces, and was most popular in eastern Hungary.[3] It was sponsored by theCommunist Party, as the Communists could attract only small support amongst rural voters.[2] Its supporter base was sympathizing with theHungarian Communist Party, with some of its leaders, includingFerenc Erdei andJózsef Darvas, being closet communists.[8]
| Election | Votes | % | Seats | +/– | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1944 | – | – | 42 / 498 | Government | |
| 1945 | 324,772 | 6.87 | 23 / 409 |  19 | Government |
| 1947 | 413,409 | 8.28 | 36 / 411 |  13 | Government |
| 1949 | Part of theMFN | 39 / 402 | 3 | Government | |
| 1990 | 37,047 | 0.75 | 0 / 386 | Extra-parliamentary | |
| National Assembly (199) |
|
|---|---|
| Not represented* |
* Threshold for parties to join the National Assembly in Hungary is 5% of the popular vote, 10% for coalitions of two parties, and 15% for coalitions of three or more parties. |
| European Parliament (21) | |
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
