Parliamentary elections were held in Czechoslovakia on 27 October 1929.[1] The Republican Party of Farmers and Peasants, emerged as the largest party, winning 46 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and 24 seats in the Senate. Voter turnout was 90.2% in the Chamber election and 78.8% for the Senate.[2] The rightward shift of the 1925 elections was reversed, with moderate centre-left groups (Social Democrats and Czechoslovak National Socialists) increasing their vote shares whilst the Communist Party suffered a set-back.[3][4]
Background
The 1929 election took place at a time of relative prosperity, just before the Great Depression.[5]
The Communist Party was the sole multinational political party in the country at the time.[6] It had emerged as a major force in the 1925 election and had around 150,000 members in 1928.[6] In 1929 leadership shifted to a younger generation and a major purge of party ranks took place.[6]
The Czechoslovak National Democrats contested the election in Slovakia together with the Slovak National Party led by Martin Rázus.[7] Nevertheless, relations between Rázus and the leader of the National Democrats in Slovakia Milan Ivanka were strained, as the former was fiercely autonomist and the latter a strong supporter of Czechoslovak nationhood.[7]
In Slovakia, Hlinka's Slovak People's Party resigned from the coalition government on 8 October 1929.[8][9] The move followed a long controversy around the legal case of the party newspaper editor Vojtech Tuka, who was sentenced for espionage and treason on 5 October 1929.[10] The Tuka affair had resulted in an internal rift in the party, with the expelled anti-Tuka faction (led by Juriga and Tománek) setting up their own Juriga's Slovak People's Party.[11]
Results
Hlinka's Slovak People's Party saw a decline compared to the 1925 vote, being reduced from 23 seats to 19.[9] One interpretation is that two years of government participation without achieving Slovak autonomy had weakened the party.[11] Moreover, the party had an ambiguous stance during the Tuka affair.[11] The Juriga faction failed to make any impact in the election.[11]
The Czechoslovak Social Democrats won five seats from Slovakia, an increase by three seats compared to the 1925 election.[12] The Communist Party on the other hand retreated from 5 seats in Slovakia, compared to 8 seats in 1925.[13] Magyar and German parties won 9 seats from Slovakia.[9]
The Czechoslovak National Socialists, which lacked widespread support in the area, managed to win two seat from Slovakia.[14] This was the best result for the party in Slovakia during the years of the First Republic.[14] Another Czech party trying to build a base in Slovakia was the Czechoslovak People's Party, which managed to get its local leader Martin Mičura elected.[14]
The Jewish Party, which had failed to win representation in 1925, managed to win two seats through an alliance with three Polish parties.[15][16] Its deputies were Ludvík Singer from Bohemia and Julius Reiz from Slovakia.[15][16]
General Radola Gajda's list ('League against Bound Tickets'), which called for the formation of a corporativist state, failed to make a major headway but won three seats (Gajda, Jiří Stříbrný and Karel Pergler).[5][17] Gajda's political line was fascist, anti-Semitic and anti-German.[17]
Amongst the deputies elected from the Česká Lípa 5th electoral district were Ernst Grünzner (DSAP), Irene Kirpal (DSAP), Josef Schweichhart (DSAP), Josef Kleibl (DNP) and Hans Krebs.[20][21][22]
Amongst the deputies elected from the Jihlava 10th electoral district were Johann Wagner (German Electoral Coalition), Erwin Zajicek (German Christian Social People's Party) and Viktor Stern (Communist Party).[23]
The Nové Zámky senatorial district consisted of the Nové Zámky 16th electoral district and the Košice 20th electoral district, two districts that together hosted around 96% of the Hungarian and 56% of the German population of Slovakia.[24][25][26] The percentage achieved by the Communist Party in the Nové Zámky 16th electoral district was the highest in the country in the 1929 vote.[24][18]
Hlinka's Slovak People's Party fielded Vojtech Tuka in the Košice 20th electoral district, but he failed to win a seat.[27] Fielding Tuka in a district where the party lacked strong support displayed the ambiguity the party had towards him during his treason trials.[27]
The Czechoslovak Social Democratic Workers' Party stood on a joint list with the Social Democratic Workers' Party in Subcarpathian Rus' in the constituency. The sole mandate won by this list went to Julius Husnaj of the Czechoslovak Social Democratic Workers' Party.[30][31]
The Czechoslovak People's Party contested under the name 'Christian People's Party' in the Užhorod electoral district.[18]
^Rusyn parties usually ran with Czechoslovak parties.
Aftermath
On 7 December 1929 František Udržal formed a coalition government of Czechoslovak Agrarians, Czechoslovak People's Party, Czechoslovak Social Democrats, Czechoslovak National Socialists, Czechoslovak National Democrats, Czechoslovak Traders' Party, German Agrarians and German Social Democrats.[5] Whilst the cabinet was politically broadened after the 1929 elections, it lacked representation from Slovak populists, German Clericals or the Magyar parties.[8][10]
References
^Dieter Nohlen & Philip Stöver (2010) Elections in Europe: A data handbook, p471 ISBN 978-3-8329-5609-7
^J. W. Bruegel (21 June 1973). Czechslovkia Before Munich: The German Minority Problem and British Appeasement Policy. CUP Archive. p. 80. ISBN 978-0-521-08687-5.
^Josef Korbel (8 December 2015). The Communist Subversion of Czechoslovakia, 1938-1948: The Failure of Co-existence. Princeton University Press. p. 13. ISBN 978-1-4008-7963-2.
^ abcCzechoslovakia. University of California Press. 1949. pp. 158–160. GGKEY:F5RXS62F3UG.
^ abcTatjana Lichtenstein (18 April 2016). Zionists in Interwar Czechoslovakia: Minority Nationalism and the Politics of Belonging. Indiana University Press. p. 291. ISBN 978-0-253-01872-4.
^ abJames Ramon Felak (15 June 1995). At the Price of the Republic: Hlinka's Slovak People's Party, 1929–1938. University of Pittsburgh Pre. p. 94. ISBN 978-0-8229-7694-3.
^ abRichard Crampton; Benjamin Crampton (11 June 2016). Atlas of Eastern Europe in the Twentieth Century. Routledge. p. 59. ISBN 978-1-317-79952-8.
^ abcStanislav J. Kirschbaum (10 May 2010). The A to Z of Slovakia. Scarecrow Press. pp. xl, 264. ISBN 978-1-4616-7215-9.
^ abHugh Agnew (1 September 2013). The Czechs and the Lands of the Bohemian Crown. Hoover Press. p. 188. ISBN 978-0-8179-4493-3.
^ abcdJames Ramon Felak (15 June 1995). At the Price of the Republic: Hlinka's Slovak People's Party, 1929–1938. University of Pittsburgh Pre. pp. 61–62. ISBN 978-0-8229-7694-3.
^Stanislav J. Kirschbaum (10 May 2010). The A to Z of Slovakia. Scarecrow Press. p. 94. ISBN 978-1-4616-7215-9.
^Stanislav J. Kirschbaum (10 May 2010). The A to Z of Slovakia. Scarecrow Press. p. 78. ISBN 978-1-4616-7215-9.
^ abcStanislav J. Kirschbaum (10 May 2010). The A to Z of Slovakia. Scarecrow Press. pp. 93, 223. ISBN 978-1-4616-7215-9.
^ abKateřina Čapková (30 May 2012). Czechs, Germans, Jews?: National Identity and the Jews of Bohemia. Berghahn Books. p. 223. ISBN 978-0-85745-475-1.
^ abTatjana Lichtenstein (18 April 2016). Zionists in Interwar Czechoslovakia: Minority Nationalism and the Politics of Belonging. Indiana University Press. p. 276. ISBN 978-0-253-01872-4.
^ abNancy Meriwether Wingfield (2007). Flag Wars and Stone Saints: How the Bohemian Lands Became Czech. Harvard University Press. p. 207. ISBN 978-0-674-02582-0.
^ abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzaaabacadManuel Statistique de la Republique Tchecoslovaque. IV. 1932. Prague. Annuaire Statistique de la Republique Tchecoslovaque. pp. 400–402
^Mads Ole Balling (1991). Von Reval bis Bukarest: Einleitung, Systematik, Quellen und Methoden, Estland, Lettland, Litauen, Polen, Tschechoslowakei. Dokumentation Verlag. pp. 252, 306–309, 311, 375–376. ISBN 978-87-983829-3-5.
^Jan N. Berwid-Buquoy (2005). Integration und Separation der Sudetendeutschen in der ČSR (1918–1920): Theorien der Nationalismen. Herbia. p. 198.
^Joachim Lilla; Martin Döring; Andreas Schulz (2004). Statisten in Uniform: die Mitglieder des Reichstags 1933-1945 : ein biographisches Handbuch : unter Einbeziehung der völkischen und nationalsozialistischen Reichstagsabgeordneten ab Mai 1924. Droste. p. 340. ISBN 978-3-7700-5254-7.
^Mads Ole Balling (1991). Von Reval bis Bukarest: Einleitung, Systematik, Quellen und Methoden, Estland, Lettland, Litauen, Polen, Tschechoslowakei. Dokumentation Verlag. pp. 394–398. ISBN 978-87-983829-3-5.
^ abEgbert K. Jahn (1971). Die Deutschen in der Slowakei in den Jahren 1918-1929: Beitrag zur Nationalitätenproblematik. Oldenbourg. pp. 124, 130. ISBN 978-3-486-43321-0.
^Zborník Ústavu marxizmu-leninizmu a Filozofickej fakulty Univerzity Komenského: Historica. Vol. 32–33. Slovenské pedagogické nakladatels̕tvo. 1981. p. 113.
^Mads Ole Balling (1991). Von Reval bis Bukarest: Einleitung, Systematik, Quellen und Methoden, Estland, Lettland, Litauen, Polen, Tschechoslowakei. Dokumentation Verlag. p. 247. ISBN 978-87-983829-3-5.
^ abCarol Skalnik Leff (14 July 2014). National Conflict in Czechoslovakia: The Making and Remaking of a State, 1918-1987. Princeton University Press. p. 83. ISBN 978-1-4008-5921-4.
^Collegium Carolinum (Munich, Germany), and Karl Bosl. Die erste Tschechoslowakische Republik als multinationaler Parteienstaat: Vorträge d. Tagungen d. Collegium Carolinum in Bad Wiessee vom 24.-27. November 1977 u. vom 20.-23. April 1978. München: Oldenbourg, 1979. p. 233
^Sabina Línová (2019). Politika a náboženství Podkarpatské Rusi v letech 1919–1929(PDF). p. 49, 53.
^Kowalski, Werner. Geschichte der sozialistischen arbeiter-internationale: 1923 – 1940. Berlin: Dt. Verl. d. Wissenschaften, 1985. p. 330
^Magocsi, Paul R., and I. I. Pop. Encyclopedia of Rusyn History and Culture. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2002. p. 468