Admiral Miklós Horthy led a right-wing government to power in Hungary. The country was in political, civil and social chaos after the First World War. Horthy remained head of state for more than twenty years, and saw the ruling political party steer the country into warm relations with national-socialism, and finally into its firm grip.
The party known first as Egységes Párt, then Nemzeti Egység Pártja, and finally Magyar Élet Pártja, shaped Hungary politically and socially between the ends of the two World Wars. It governed from June 2 1922 to October 16 1944, when the Nyilaskeresztes Párt (Arrow Cross Party) established the Nemzeti Összefogás Kormánya coalition (Government of National Unity), with Ferenc Szálasi as its leader. The Nemzeti Összefogás Kormánya still had members of the Magyar Élet Pártja, but members that weren’t extremely supportive of fascism, national-socialism and antisemitism were purged. The Nemzeti Összefogás Kormánya government was dissolved on May 7 1945, one day after Ferenc Szálasi was captured by allied forces.…
