As we know from József Sipos’s last book (The Two-Thirds Victory of István Bethlen),
the political events of 1922, the foundation of the Unity Party (Egységes Párt) and
its electoral victory proved to be a turning point in the political system of the
Horthy era. This study examines another important and interesting phenomenon of the
anti-democratic election of 1922, namely the relatively good performance of the opposition,
the Social Democrats. In the first years of the counter-revolutionary period, the
left-wing party was a political force outside the parliamentary system until the agreement
with the government at the end of 1921. Thereafter, the Social Democrats, as a ‘new
force,’ managed to gain the support not only of (industrial) workers but of other
social groups and to collect the protest vote with a dynamic and confident electoral
campaign. Thus, they became the largest opposition force in the new parliament that
was formed after the election in 1922.
