Bethlen–Peyer Pact
베틀렌–페이에르 협정
The secret agreement of 22 December 1921 between the government of the Hungarian prime minister István Bethlen and the Social Democratic Party led by Károly Peyer. The party gave up organising civil servants and railwaymen, mass strikes and republican propaganda in return for legal activity, the rebuilding of its trade unions and participation in elections.
In depth
It was signed for the Social Democrats by Peyer, István Farkas and Ferenc Miákits, and for the government by Bethlen and four ministers. The party agreed to limit its agitation among agricultural labourers and to refrain from criticising Bethlen’s foreign policy, and its seats were capped at 24; the government issued an amnesty ending reprisals against the left. The text became public when Népszava printed it in full on 31 December 1924.
The pact let the Social Democrats sit in parliament and work legally from 1922 to 1944, while the illegal Communist Party stayed outside it and remained persecuted. The Communists denounced it as a betrayal, a deal between the “labour aristocracy” and capital.