page_title: Government of National Unity (Hungary)
section_title: Hungary splits in two
hierarchical_section_title: Government of National Unity (Hungary) / Hungary splits in two
caption_attribution_description: Information added by Wikimedia users.Español: Desfile de miembros de la Cruz Flechada, Budapest, octubre de 1944.English: Arrow Cross members marching in Budapest, October 1944
context_page_description: The Government of National Unity existed during the occupation of Hungary by Nazi Germany between October 1944 and May 1945. Formed by the Nazi Arrow Cross Party, it was established on 16 October 1944 after Regent Miklós Horthy was removed from power during Operation "Panzerfaust". Arrow Cross leader Ferenc Szálasi became Prime Minister and, as "Nation Leader", the head of state. During the government's short period of rule, ten to fifteen thousand Jews were murdered in Hungary and around eighty thousand Jews, including many women, children and elderly Jews, were deported from Hungary to their deaths in the Auschwitz concentration camp.
context_section_description: After Miklós Horthy announced an armistice with the Allies on 15 October, the Germans kidnapped him and threatened to kill his son unless he renounced the armistice and abdicated.  To spare his son's life, Horthy signed a statement announcing both his abdication and the appointment of Arrow Cross leader Ferenc Szálasi as Magyar királyi miniszterelnök (Royal Hungarian Prime Minister) on 16 October. He was then deported to Germany.  This act merely rubber-stamped an Arrow Cross coup, as Szálasi's men had taken over Budapest the previous night. 
  In his memoirs, Horthy later contended that he never gave power to the Arrow Cross, but had "merely exchanged my signature for my son's life." As he saw it, the appointment of Szálasi was void, since "a signature wrung from a man at machine-gun point can have little legality." 
  The Hungarian parliament approved the formation of a Council of Regency (Kormányzótanács) of three on 17 October. On 4 November, Szálasi was sworn as Leader of the Nation (nemzetvezető). He formed a government of sixteen ministers, half of which were members of the Arrow Cross Party. While the Horthy regency had come to an end, the Hungarian monarchy was not abolished by the Szálasi regime, as government newspapers kept referring to the country as the Kingdom of Hungary (Magyar Királyság, also abbreviated as m.kir.), although Magyarország (Hungary) was frequently used as an alternative.
  Szálasi was an ardent fascist and his "Quisling government" had little other intention or ability but to maintain fascism and to maintain control in Nazi-occupied portions of Hungary as Soviet troops poured into Hungary. He did this in order to reduce the threat to Germany. Szálasi's aim was to create a one-party state based on his "Hungarist" ideology.
  On 21 December 1944, with the approval of the Soviet Union, Béla Miklós was elected as the Prime Minister of a "counter" Hungarian government in Soviet-controlled Debrecen. Miklós was a former commander of the Hungarian First Army. He had failed in his efforts to convince many of the men under his command to switch sides. The government that Miklós oversaw was an "interim government" and maintained control in the Soviet-occupied portions of Hungary.
caption: Arrow Cross members marching in Budapest, October 1944
exif: {}