Founded 1932 (1932) Headquarters Budapest, Hungary | Dissolved 1944 (1944) Ideology Szeged Idea | |
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Leader Gyula Gömbös (1932-1936)
Béla Imrédy (1938-1939)
Miklós Kállay (1942-1944) Succeeded by 1940, a pro-National Socialist faction under the leadership of Béla Imrédy split from the party to form the Party of Hungarian Renewal | ||
The Party of Hungarian Life (Magyar Élet Pártja, MÉP), also previously known as the Party of National Unity (Nemzeti Egység Pártja) from 1932 to 1939, was a Hungarian Szegedist political party. The party was similar to fascist movements in that it had a militia. It first became the ruling party of Hungary from 1932 to 1936 under the leadership of Gyula Gömbös, who was Prime Minister of Hungary during that time. Gömbös declared the party's intention to achieve "total control of the nation's social life". In the 1935 Hungarian Election, Gömbös promoted the creation of a "unitary Hungarian nation with no class distinctions".
The party won a huge majority of the seats of the Hungarian parliament in the Hungarian election of May 1939. It won 72 percent of the parliament's seats and won 49 percent of the popular vote in the election. This was a major breakthrough for the far-right in Hungary. The party promoted nationalist propaganda and its members sympathized with the Nazi Arrow Cross Party.
A faction of the most pro-National Socialist members led by the party's former leader Béla Imrédy split from the party October 1940 to form the Party of Hungarian Renewal (Magyar Megújulás Pártja) that sought to explicitly solve the Jewish Problem.