Opposition Party (Hungary, 1847–1849)
헝가리 야당 (1847–1849)
The party founded in Pest on 15 March 1847 to unite the various currents of the Hungarian reform opposition. Lajos Batthyány was its president and Lajos Kossuth the author of its programme, the Opposition Declaration finalised by Ferenc Deák. After the March revolution of 1848 it formed the Batthyány government and became the ruling party.
In depth
The reform opposition gathered first in the National Circle and the Pest Circle and then in the Opposition Circle. When the court-loyal Conservative Party was founded in November 1846, the centralists led by József Eötvös and the "municipalists" set aside their differences ahead of the elections of 1847 and founded the Opposition Party at a national opposition conference on 15 March. At the founding meeting Kossuth outlined its programme and Petőfi recited his poem "In the Name of the People". The Opposition Declaration, finalised by Deák, was adopted in June, and its programme became the basis of the Twelve Points and the April Laws.
With the victory of the March revolution of 1848 the party took power: the prime minister and five ministers of the Batthyány government were members, and politics until the summer divided between the moderate majority in parliament and the radicals who attacked the new cabinet. In 1849 the Conservative Party too merged into it. After the revolution was crushed the former Opposition Party split between Deák and Eötvös, who led the way to the Compromise of 1867, and Kossuth and his followers, who rejected it.