Hungarian parliamentary election, 1990

Hungarian parliamentary election, 1990
All 386 seats in the National Assembly ; 194 seats needed for a majority
Turnout	65.11% and 45.54%
	Results of SMCs
Prime Minister before election; Miklós Németh ; MSZP	Elected Prime Minister; József Antall ; MDF

Last updated April 08, 2019

Parliamentary elections were held in Hungary on 25 March 1990, with a second round of voting taking place in all but five single member constituencies on 8 April.^[1]^[2] They were the first completely free and competitive elections to be held in the country since 1945, and only the second free elections in the country's history. The conservative, nationalist Hungarian Democratic Forum (MDF) beat the liberal and more internationalist Alliance of Free Democrats, which had spearheaded opposition to Communist rule in 1989, to become the largest party in parliament. The Hungarian Socialist Party, the former Communist party, suffered a crushing defeat, winning only 33 seats for fourth place.

Hungary is a country in Central Europe. Spanning 93,030 square kilometres (35,920 sq mi) in the Carpathian Basin, it borders Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Austria to the northwest, Romania to the east, Serbia to the south, Croatia to the southwest, and Slovenia to the west. With about 10 million inhabitants, Hungary is a medium-sized member state of the European Union. The official language is Hungarian, which is the most widely spoken Uralic language in the world. Hungary's capital and largest city is Budapest. Other major urban areas include Debrecen, Szeged, Miskolc, Pécs and Győr.

The Hungarian Democratic Forum was a centre-right political party in Hungary. It had a Hungarian nationalist, national-conservative and christian democratic ideology. The party was represented continuously in the National Assembly from the restoration of democracy in 1990 until 2010. It was dissolved on 8 April 2011.

A coalition government is a cabinet of a parliamentary government in which multiple political parties cooperate, reducing the dominance of any one party within that "coalition". The usual reason for this arrangement is that no party on its own can achieve a majority in the parliament. A coalition government might also be created in a time of national difficulty or crisis to give a government the high degree of perceived political legitimacy or collective identity it desires while also playing a role in diminishing internal political strife. In such times, parties have formed all-party coalitions. If a coalition collapses, a confidence vote is held or a motion of no confidence is taken.

The Christian Democratic People's Party is a Christian-democratic political party in Hungary. It is officially a coalition partner of the ruling party, Fidesz, but is in reality a satellite party of Fidesz and has been unable to get into the Parliament on its own since 2006. For several elections prior to the pact, they had been unable to pass the election threshold of 5% of the vote. Without Fidesz, its support cannot be measured, and even a leading Fidesz politician, János Lázár, stated that Fidesz does not consider the government to be a coalition government.

Background

Hungary's transition to a Western-style democracy was one of the smoothest among the former Soviet bloc. By late 1988, activists within the party and bureaucracy and Budapest-based intellectuals were increasing pressure for change. Some of these became reformist social democrats, while others began movements which were to develop into parties. Young liberals formed the Federation of Young Democrats (Fidesz); a core from the so-called Democratic Opposition formed the Association of Free Democrats (SZDSZ), and the national opposition established the Hungarian Democratic Forum (MDF).

Among the organized opposition, Round Table Talks began in March 1989, a series of formalized, orderly and highly legalistic discussions, inspired by the Polish model. At that point, longtime leader János Kádár had been removed from power for almost a year, and the Communists' Central Committee that month admitted the necessity of a multiparty system, with various groups like Fidesz and the Alliance of Free Democrats (SzDSz) having emerged.^[3] Mass demonstrations on March 15, the National Day, persuaded the regime to begin negotiations with the emergent non-Communist political forces. A week later, these new movements, at the initiative of the Independent Lawyers’ Forum, formed the Opposition Round Table (Ellenzéki Kerekasztal, EKA), designed to prevent the Communists from trying to maintain power by dividing the opposition, and to establish some degree of unity in the face of the regime’s own reform agenda.^[4] The table was composed of a small number of elite organizations, whose grassroots links were poorly developed and whose very existence stemmed in part from the collaboration of key Communist reformers. Specifically, it involved the SzDSz, Fidesz, the Hungarian Democratic Forum (MDF), the Independent Smallholders’ Party (FKgP), the Hungarian People’s Party (MNP), the Endre Bajcsy-Zsilinszky Society, and the Democratic Trade Union of Scientific Workers. At a later stage the Democratic Confederation of Free Trade Unions and the Christian Democratic People's Party (KNDP) were invited.^[5]

The Hungarian Round Table Talks were a series of formalized, orderly and highly legalistic discussions held in Budapest, Hungary in the summer and autumn of 1989, inspired by the Polish model, that ended in the creation of a multi-party constitutional democracy and saw the Communist Party lose its 40-year grip on power.

The Polish Round Table Talks took place in Warsaw, Poland from 6 February to 5 April 1989. The government initiated the discussion with the banned trade union Solidarność and other opposition groups in an attempt to defuse growing social unrest.

János Kádár was a Hungarian communist leader and the General Secretary of the Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party, presiding over the country from 1956 until his retirement in 1988. His 32-year term as General Secretary covered most of the period the People's Republic of Hungary existed. Due to Kádár's age, declining health and declining political mastery, he retired as General Secretary of the party in 1988 and a younger generation consisting mostly of reformers took over.

In October 1989, the ruling Communist Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party (MSZMP) convened its last congress and re-established itself as the Hungarian Socialist Party (MSZP), which branded itself as a Western European-style social democratic party. In a historic session from 16 October to 20 October, the parliament adopted legislation providing for multi-party parliamentary elections and a direct presidential election. The legislation changed Hungary's official name from the People's Republic of Hungary to the Republic of Hungary, guaranteed human and civil rights, and created an institutional structure that ensured separation of powers among the judicial, legislative, and executive branches of government.

The Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party was the ruling Marxist–Leninist party of the Hungarian People's Republic between 1956 and 1989. It was organised from elements of the Hungarian Working People's Party during the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, with János Kádár as general secretary. The party also controlled its armed forces, the Hungarian People's Army.

The Hungarian Socialist Party, known mostly by its acronym MSZP, is a social-democratic political party in Hungary.

An agreement was reached involving six draft laws that covered an overhaul of the Constitution, establishment of a Constitutional Court, the functioning and management of political parties, multiparty elections for National Assembly deputies, the penal code and the law on penal procedures (the last two changes represented an additional separation of the Party from the state apparatus).^[4]^[6] The electoral system was a compromise: about half of the deputies would be elected proportionally and half by the majoritarian system.^[7] A weak presidency was also agreed upon, but no consensus was attained on who should elect the president (parliament or the people) and when this election should occur (before or after parliamentary elections). Initially, the opposition was united in wanting the president elected by parliament after new elections to ensure parliamentary supremacy and minimise the MSzMP’s power.^[8] Then, faced with Communist concessions, the relatively weak opposition split, as at least three moderate groups (including KNDP and MDF) signed the Round Table agreement and implicitly accepted Pozsgay as president while the radicals (notably Fidesz and the SzDSz) refused to do so. After a burst of negotiations, fully free elections were scheduled for March 1990, in contrast to the semi-free elections held in Poland in June 1989.^[9]

The Fundamental Law of Hungary, the country's constitution, was adopted by Parliament on 18 April 2011, promulgated by the President a week later and entered into force on 1 January 2012. It is Hungary's first constitution adopted within a democratic framework and following free elections.

The Constitutional Court of Hungary is a special court of Hungary, making judicial review of the acts of the Parliament of Hungary. The official seat of the Constitutional Court is Budapest. Until 2012 the seat was Esztergom.

Contract Sejm is a term commonly applied to the "Sejm" (parliament) elected in the Polish parliamentary elections of 1989. The contract refers to an agreement reached by the Polish United Workers' Party and the Solidarity movement during the Polish Round Table Agreement. The final agreement was signed on April 5, 1989. As a result, real political power was vested in a newly created bicameral legislature and in a president who would be the chief executive. Solidarność became a legitimate and legal political party.

Electoral system

Of the 386 seats in the National Assembly, 176 were elected from single member constituencies, 120 from multi-member constituencies and a further 90 from "compensatory" national seats.^[10]

Results

Party		SMCs			MMCs			National seats	Total seats

Party		Votes	%	Seats	Votes	%	Seats	National seats	Total seats
	Hungarian Democratic Forum	1,186,791	23.9	114	1,213,820	24.7	40	10	164
	Alliance of Free Democrats	1,082,965	21.8	35	1,050,440	21.4	34	23	92
	Independent Smallholders' Party	529,299	10.7	11	576,256	11.7	16	17	44
	Hungarian Socialist Party	504,995	10.2	1	534,897	10.9	14	18	33
	Christian Democratic People's Party	287,614	5.8	3	317,183	6.5	8	10	21
	Fidesz	235,611	4.8	1	439,448	9.0	8	12	21
	Patriotic Electoral Coalition	157,798	3.2	0	91,910	1.9	0	0	0
	Agrarian Alliance	139,240	2.8	1	154,003	3.1	0	0	1
	Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party	131,444	2.7	0	180,899	3.7	0	0	0
	Hungarian Social Democratic Party	104,010	2.1	0	174,409	3.6	0	0	0
	Entrepreneurs' Party	82,518	1.7	0	92,684	1.9	0	0	0
	Hungarian People's Party	38,647	0.8	0	37,047	0.8	0	0	0
	SZDSZ–Fidesz	23,702	0.5	2	–	–	–	0	2
	Green Party of Hungary	19,434	0.4	0	17,951	0.4	0	0	0
	ASZ–SZFV	12,958	0.3	1	–	–	–	0	1
	ASZ–HVK	12,926	0.3	0	–	–	–	0	0
	National Smallholders' and Civic Party	12,366	0.3	0	9,944	0.2	0	0	0
	Independent Social Democratic Party	7,564	0.2	0	–	–	–	0	0
	KDNP–Fidesz–SZDSZ	6,473	0.1	1	–	–	–	0	1
	Somogy County Christian Coalition	5,029	0.1	0	5,966	0.1	0	0	0
	Hungarian Cooperative and Agrarian Party	5,882	0.1	0	4,945	0.1	0	0	0
	Tedisz–Fédisz	3,759	0.1	0	–	–	–	0	0
	Independent Hungarian Democratic Party	4,640	0.1	0	2,954	0.1	0	0	0
	Freedom Party	4,342	0.1	0	2,814	0.1	0	0	0
	MSZP–ASZ	2,255	0.1	0	–	–	–	0	0
	Hungarian Independence Party	2,129	0.0	0	2,143	0.0	0	0	0
	Alliance for the Village and Countryside	3,092	0.1	0	–	–	–	0	0
	Holy Crown Society	1,906	0.0	0	–	–	–	0	0
	Party of Generations, Party of Pensioners and Families	1,762	0.0	0	–	–	–	0	0
	MSZP–HVK	1,589	0.0	0	–	–	–	0	0
	Alliance for the Protection of Nature and Society	1,284	0.0	0	–	–	–	0	0
	Hungarian Workers' Democratic Center Party	973	0.0	0	–	–	–	0	0
	Party for Rural Hungary	690	0.0	0	–	–	–	0	0
	Social Democratic Party of Hungarian Gypsies	613	0.0	0	–	–	–	0	0
	People of the Orient Party – Christian Democrats	346	0.0	0	–	–	–	0	0
	Independents	342,674	6.9	6	–	–	–	–	6
Invalid/blank votes		96,109	–	–	172,136	–	–	–	–
Total		5,055,429	100	176	5,081,849	100	120	90	386
Registered voters/turnout		7,798,827	65.0	–	7,822,661	65.1	–	–	–
Source: Nohlen & Stöver

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References

↑ Dieter Nohlen & Philip Stöver (2010) Elections in Europe: A data handbook, p899 ISBN 978-3-8329-5609-7
↑ Nohlen & Stöver, p924
↑ Grzymała-Busse 2002, p. 108.
1 2 Heenan & Lamontagne 1999, p. 13.
↑ Falk 2003, p. 147.
↑ De Nevers 2003, p. 130.
↑ Elster, Offe & Preuss, p. 66.
↑ Butler & Ranney 1994, p. 185.
↑ Grzymała-Busse 2002, p. 109.
↑ Nohlen & Stöver, p935

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[NS-1] Dieter Nohlen & Philip Stöver (2010) Elections in Europe: A data handbook, p899 ISBN 978-3-8329-5609-7

[2] Nohlen & Stöver, p924

[FOOTNOTEGrzymała-Busse2002108-3] Grzymała-Busse 2002, p. 108.

[FOOTNOTEHeenanLamontagne199913-4] 1 2 Heenan & Lamontagne 1999, p. 13.

[FOOTNOTEFalk2003147-5] Falk 2003, p. 147.

[FOOTNOTEDe_Nevers2003130-6] De Nevers 2003, p. 130.

[FOOTNOTEElsterOffePreuss66-7] Elster, Offe & Preuss, p. 66.

[FOOTNOTEButlerRanney1994185-8] Butler & Ranney 1994, p. 185.

[FOOTNOTEGrzymała-Busse2002109-9] Grzymała-Busse 2002, p. 109.

[10] Nohlen & Stöver, p935