Strana národní jednoty

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The Party of National Unity ( Czech Strana národní jednoty ) was a Czech political party in accordance with the Munich Agreement resulting Czecho-Slovak Republic . It existed from the end of 1938 to 1939 and politically tended towards a nationally emphasized authoritarian regime. Its chairman was Rudolf Beran .

history

Party chairman Rudolf Beran

After the Munich Agreement and the forced exile of President Edvard Beneš , a political vacuum developed in the renamed Czecho-Slovak Republic. In the Czech part of the country ( Bohemia , Moravia and Moravia-Silesia ) this vacuum was filled on November 22, 1938 as part of the so-called "simplification of the political system" with the unification of all bourgeois parties to form the Party of National Unity. The core of the party was the former Czechoslovak Agrarian Party of Rudolf Berans. Furthermore, the Trade Party, the National Democratic Party, the Catholic People's Party , part of the Czechoslovak People's Socialist Party and two small fascist parties (National League and National Fascist Community ) joined. The new party openly sought a one-party system . On December 15, 1938, the new Czechoslovak President Emil Hácha and the Czechoslovak Prime Minister and Chairman of the National Unity Party, Rudolf Beran, were granted broad, barely controllable powers through an enabling law. The unions were brought into line and self-government dissolved. After the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia was officially banned, the Social Democrats, together with the other part of the People's Socialist Party, formed the National Labor Party , which was supposed to function as a “loyal opposition” . This marked the way to a dictatorship. The party diversity was blamed for the "national defeat" . The "rebirth" should be set in motion by a unified and tight leadership. Former leader of the People's Socialist Party, Václav Klofáč , who recommended joining the National Unity Party, now spoke of the need for an "authoritarian democracy" :

“Now nobody is allowed to see anything other than the bleeding people. At least for the next bad years, the parties should merge with the people. "

In the Czech part of the Czecho-Slovak Republic there should be only two parties, the National Unity Party and the National Labor Party.

The party program adopted on February 16, 1939 contained all the elements of a corporate state and, in addition to the prospective dissolution of the only symbolic opposition party, the National Labor Party, also contained anti-Semitic theses. The Slovak equivalent to the Party of National Unity was the Slovak Hlinka People's Party - Party of Slovak National Unity , founded on November 8th .

After the German occupation of the Czech Republic and the establishment of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, the National Unity Party was effectively absorbed into the newly founded Národní souručenství .

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Vilém Prečam: problems of the Czech party system between Munich 1938 and May 1945. In: Karl Bosl (ed.): The first Czechoslovak Republic as a multinational party state. Oldenbourg, Munich et al. 1979, ISBN 3-486-49181-4 , pp. 529-552, here p. 538.
  2. ↑ Detlef Brandes: The Czechoslovak National Socialists. In: Karl Bosl (Ed.): The First Czechoslovak Republic as a multinational party state. Oldenbourg, Munich et al. 1979, ISBN 3-486-49181-4 , pp. 101–154, here p. 143, (online, accessed on May 24, 2011) .