Hungary

Abstract

The new Republic of Hungary was proclaimed on 23 October 1989, 33 years after Soviet troops intervened in Hungary and installed a Soviet-supported government. Compared to most other countries in Central-Eastern Europe, Hungary had long and stronger economic and political ties with several Western European countries, above all Austria. The economic and the political reform process started early as a result. In 1989, several new political parties were founded and old parties reconstituted. Among them, the most prominent were the centre-right Hungarian Democratic Forum (MDF), the liberal Alliance of Free Democrats (SzDSz), set up by dissident intellectuals from several unofficial opposition groups, and the Independent Smallholders’ Party (FKgP), which had been a dominant party in Hungary’s first postwar election of 1947. In addition, the Social Democratic Party (MSzDP), which had merged with the Hungarian Communist Party in 1945 to form the Hungarian Workers’ Party, was reconstituted.