Hungarian parliamentary election, 1947

The Hungarian parliamentary election of 1947 was held on 31 August of that year. The Hungarian Communist Party, which had lost the previous election, consolidated its power in the interim using salami tactics. This fact, combined with the weakening of the opposition and a revised electoral law, led to further Communist gains. It was Hungary's last remotely competitive election before 1990.

In the summer of 1947, in the presence of Soviet arms, Hungary prepared for a new election. The Communists intended to exploit the situation that arose as a result of the disarray of their main rival, the Independent Smallholders Party, to gain a clear majority in the legislature. [Kontler, p.401] Their campaign's central theme was the party's national character; during the coalition years, the Communists had presented themselves as the champion of national interests and as heirs to the nation's tradition. [Mevius, Martin. "Agents of Moscow", p.190. Oxford University Press (2005), ISBN 0199274614] During these preparations, two events clearly indicated the politicisation of economic issues and the economic significance of political decisions. Upon pressure from Moscow, on 10 July the Hungarian government announced its abstention from the conference that was discussing the Marshall Plan for Europe's postwar reconstruction, which, as Joseph Stalin realised, was an attempt of the United States to counter the Soviet military and political dominance of central and southeastern Europe by economic machinations. Slightly earlier, a State Planning Office was created, the three-year plan as urged by the Communists in the previous year was enacted, and on 1 August its implementation began. [Kontler, p.401]

It was after these further steps away from the Western democracies and towards a Soviet-type system that elections were held. They took place on the basis of a new electoral law pushed through by the Communists, which excluded about 466,000 people (almost a tenth of the electorate) from the vote on grounds of political unreliability; more parties participated, with only fascist ones still prohibited. In order to further guarantee success, the Communists severely rigged the elections (50,000 fraudulent votes were cast for them [Borhi, p.127] [Some estimates go as high as 200,000; this marred the election's integrity, in addition to doubts about the count, pre-election intimidation, the Communists' encouragement of the Smallholders' breakup, and the fleeing into exile, arrest and deportation of many non-communist party leaders. Wittenberg, Jason. "Crucibles of Political Loyalty", p.56-7. Cambridge University Press (2006), ISBN 0521849128] ) but nevertheless managed to increase their vote share to a mere 22%, and failed to attain an absolute majority even with the other parties of the Left Wing Bloc. Though the emasculated and demoralised Smallholders only scored 15%, the groups that had seceded from them did well: the Democratic People's Party of István Barankovics came in second (keeping alive a real opposition and showing the strength of popular commitment to pluralism [Borhi, p.127] ), and Zoltán Pfeiffer's Independence Party did not lag far behind the Social Democrats. [Kontler, p.401-2]

However, the Smallholders' left wing thwarted a coalition initiative from the two main opposition parties, and the old coalition remained, with the manageable Smallholder Lajos Dinnyés kept by the Communists as prime minister and dutiful communist sympathisers from the other parties at government ministerial posts for the sake of preserving the parliamentary facade. Even this turned out to be completely redundant very soon thereafter, with the gradualist approach abandoned and salami tactics accelerated. The Cominform came into being just days after the new Dinnyés government was formed; intimidation, targeting of the increasingly submissive democratic parties (and absorption of the Social Democrats), nationalisation, collectivisation and other measures soon rendered the period 1944-47 a short democratic interlude, and the coalition became a mere memory a year and a half later, with the Communists wielding exclusive power. [Kontler, p.402]

Results

Parties entering the governing coalition (the Hungarian National Independence Front) shown in bold. Total seat number given, followed by district seats and nationwide list seats. If the Smallholders, Democratic People's Party, Independence Party, Independent Hungarian Democratic Party and Christian Women's League represented the Right, and the Social Democrats, Communists, and National Peasants the Left, the former won 2,590,719 or 51.8%, and the latter won 2,273,156 or 45.5%. [Wittenberg, p.57]

Notes

References

* Borhi, László. "Hungary in the Cold War, 1945-1956". Central European University Press (2004), ISBN 963-9241-80-6
* Kontler, László. "A History of Hungary". Palgrave Macmillan (2002), ISBN 1-4039-0316-6