Unity Party (Hungary)

The Unity Party (Hungarian: Egységes Párt), officially the Catholic-Protestant Farmers, Smallholders, and Civic Party or Christian Farmers, Smallholders and Civic Party (Hungarian: Keresztény-Keresztyén Földmíves-, Kisgazda- és Polgári Párt), was the ruling party of the Kingdom of Hungary from 1922 to 1944.

LeaderIstván Bethlen (1922–1932)
Gyula Gömbös (1932–1936)
Béla Imrédy (1938–1939)
Pál Teleki (1939-1941)
László Bárdossy (1941-1942)
Miklós Kállay (1942–1944)

FounderIstván Bethlen

Founded2 February 1922 (1922-02-02)

Dissolved23 March 1944 (1944-03-23)

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Unity Party Egységes Párt
Logo of the party seen during the early to late 1930s.
Leader	István Bethlen (1922–1932) Gyula Gömbös (1932–1936) Béla Imrédy (1938–1939) Pál Teleki (1939-1941) László Bárdossy (1941-1942) Miklós Kállay (1942–1944)
Founder	István Bethlen
Founded	2 February 1922 (1922-02-02)
Dissolved	23 March 1944 (1944-03-23)
Merger of	KNEP (partial) and OKGFP
Headquarters	Budapest, Hungary
Ideology	Right-wing big tent  • Hungarian nationalism  • Christian nationalism  • Corporatism  • Anti-communism Factions:  • Conservatism  • National conservatism[1]  • Agrarianism  • Szeged Idea[2][3]  • Antisemitism
Political position	1922–1932: Right-wing[4] 1932–1944: Far-right[5]
Party flag
Politics of Hungary Political parties Elections

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It was founded in early 1922, and in the same year they won an electoral landslide in the parliamentary election.^[6] Initially, the party was conservative and agrarian but in the early 1930s its fascist faction grew to become the largest, and shortly after they established a militia.^[7] The main leader of the fascist faction was Gyula Gömbös, who served as the prime minister from 1932 to 1936.^[8] When he came to power, the party was renamed to National Unity Party (Hungarian: Nemzeti Egység Pártja).

Gömbös declared the party's intention to achieve "total control of the nation's social life".^[9] In the 1935 Hungarian Election, Gömbös promoted the creation of a "unitary Hungarian nation with no class distinctions".^[10] The party won a huge majority of the seats of the Hungarian parliament in the Hungarian election of May 1939.^[11] It won 72 percent of the parliament's seats and won 49 percent of the popular vote in the election.^[5] This was a major breakthrough for the far-right in Hungary.^[5] The party promoted nationalist propaganda and some of its members sympathized with the Nazi Arrow Cross Party.^[5] In 1939, the party was renamed to the Hungarian Life Party (Hungarian: Magyar Élet Pártja).

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.^[8] A faction of the most pro-Nazi members led by the party's former leader Béla Imrédy split from the party October 1940 to form the Hungarian Renewal Party [Wikidata] (Magyar Megújulás Pártja) that sought to explicitly "solve" the "Jewish Problem."