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The Voyage of Hungarian Christian Democracy to the Heart of Europe

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The Voyage of Hungarian Christian Democracy to the Heart of Europe Pascal Fontaine The Voyage of Hungarian Christian Democracy to the Heart of Europe HUNGARIAN CHAPTERS Barankovics István Alapítvány TABLE OF CONTENTS Foreword to the English edition ..................................................................................... 4 Foreword to the Hungarian chapters ............................................................................. 6 Éva Petrás The History of Christian Democracy in Hungary –From the Beginning to 1949 ....... 9 Róbert Szabó A Christian Democratic Endeavour in East-Central Europe: the Democratic People’s Party (1944–1949) ........................................................................................... 25 Rita Mária Kiss Strategies of Party Identity in KDNP’s Policy (1989-1998) ........................................ 43 Éva Petrás The Voyage of Hungarian Christian Democracy to the Heart of Europe ................. 82 Róbert Szabó Background and Chronology of the Christian Democratic People’s Party, 1988–2010 ...................................................... 95 1988 ...................................................................................................................... 95 1989 ...................................................................................................................... 95 1990 ...................................................................................................................... 97 1991 .................................................................................................................... 100 1992 .................................................................................................................... 102 1993 .................................................................................................................... 104 1994 .................................................................................................................... 105 1995 .................................................................................................................... 107 1996 .................................................................................................................... 108 1997 .................................................................................................................... 109 1998 .................................................................................................................... 113 2000 .................................................................................................................... 115 2001 .................................................................................................................... 115 2002 .................................................................................................................... 116 2003 .................................................................................................................... 116 2004 .................................................................................................................... 117 2005 .................................................................................................................... 117 2006 .................................................................................................................... 118 2007 .................................................................................................................... 119 2008 .................................................................................................................... 119 2009 .................................................................................................................... 119 2010 .................................................................................................................... 120 Index of Names (compiled by Katalin Lukácsi) ........................................................ 122 [ 1 ] [ 2 ] The Voyage of Hungarian Christian Democracy to the Heart of Europe The Voyage of Hungarian Christian Democracy to the Heart of Europe [PDF] ISBN 978-963-89921-8-5 [ 3 ] FOREWORD TO THE ENGLISH EDITION Navigare necesse est: to sail is necessary, and riding today’s wild waves we are increasingly eager to know where we came from and where we are heading. We seek answers to the questions of our time, and our predecessors can help us in this endeavour. They have been there and done that: they have walked the social, moral and intellectual paths that are presented to the reader in this comprehensive publication. It is, if you like, a guidebook, and one that satisfies both academic and respectable non-academic interest in the very essence of Christian democracy. The István Barankovics Foundation was established in 2006 as the party foundation of the Christian Democratic People’s Party. Its purpose is to promote and disseminate information on Christian democratic thoughts and ideas, and to strengthen the democratic features of political culture in Hungary. The foundation supports the task of uncovering Christian democracy’s origins, carries out academic activities aimed at addressing contemporary challenges, and also organizes its own research projects. The Christian Democracy Knowledge Base project was launched in 2012 and with it we laid down the groundwork of our digital encyclopaedia, the Christian Democracy Knowledge Base. This is a unique undertaking in Hungary, and with it we strive to present a comprehensive history of Christian democracy, its traditions in public life, and its policy-shaping endeavours. It also allows us to use modern tools and technology to support academic orientation in the realm of Christian politics. As part of our Christian Democracy Knowledge Base project and with the kind support of the European People's Party, we published Pascal Fontaine’s Voyage to the Heart of Europe (1953-2009), originally published in French by Racine Publishing in 2009, and since translated into several languages of the European Union. This book closes a gap in Hungarian technical literature through its detailed exploration of a key accomplishment in the history of European Christian democracy, i.e. the creation of the European Union, including the history of European Christian democrats and that of the European People’s Party up to 2009. In the extended Hungarian edition, which is now being published separately in English, we have added the history of Christian democracy in Hungary, a journey that in many ways differs from the core European experience. Preparing these chapters required significant additional archival investigation, which was undertaken by the members of the knowledge base research team. Their efforts to reveal the recent past would not have been possible without support from the European People’s Party and the Christian Democratic People’s Party, for which we are incredibly grateful. We would also like to thank the technical reader of the Hungarian chapters, Lajos Izsák and the proof-reader of the English translation, Éva Petrás for their quick and accurate work; the editor of the Hungarian edition, Rita Mária Kiss for coordinating the work of the research team; the authors of the Hungarian chapters, Róbert Szabó, Éva Petrás and Rita Mária Kiss for their diligent research; and last but not least our research assistant, Katalin Lukácsi for her help on a wide range of matters. [ 4 ] I recommend this latest publication of the István Barankovics Foundation to researchers of the topic, to academic libraries and to doctoral courses safe in the belief that it will enrich and expand our joint knowledge of the international and domestic history of Christian democracy. Further, I recommend this book to all of those who were shapers or stakeholders of the events in Hungary’s recent past, and also to anyone who simply wants dependable information on our shared voyage to the heart of Europe. Dr. András Gábor Szényei Vice Chairman, István Barankovics Foundation [ 5 ] FOREWORD TO THE HUNGARIAN CHAPTERS Since it was first published, Pascal Fontaine’s “Voyage to the Heart of Europe” has been translated into several world languages. Still, the Hungarian edition is unique, as the original text has been extended with a presentation of the history of Christian democracy in Hungary – thanks to the István Barankovics Foundation’s Christian Democracy Knowledge Base project. Christian democrats in West Europe were pioneers in laying the foundation of post-World War II Europe, while the fate of their counterparts in East Central Europe was drifted to a very different direction: their journey to the European Union was forced to lead through countless bypasses. The Hungarian authors of this book, members of the Christian democracy Knowledge Base project, endeavoured to present the national characteristics of this parallel history, as much as scope limitations allowed. This paper presents the journey starting in the 1930s with the rise of the Democratic People’s Party (1944-1949), an organization that demonstrated outstanding political performance in the region, continuing with the inevitable destruction of that party – a necessity resembling the storyline of classic Greek tragedies. Then we look at the history of the party’s re-launch in 1989, scrutinizing the journey through European integration. Finally, the West and East European streams of Christian democracy meet again in the parliamentary faction of the European People’s Party, “in the heart of Europe”. The introductory paper of Éva Petrás reviews the history of the ideology in an international and domestic
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