Hungarian Socialist Party

The Hungarian Socialist Party (Hungarian: Magyar Szocialista Párt), commonly known by its acronym MSZP, is a centre-left^[1] social-democratic^{[2][3][4][5][6]} and pro-european^[7][8] political party in Hungary.

The MSZP came from the communist Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party (MSZMP), which governed Hungary from 1956 to 1989. By the summer of 1989, the MSZMP was no longer a Marxist–Leninist party and was taken over by a group of reformers who wanted to replace the Communist system with a market economy.

At a party congress on 7 October 1989, the MSZMP ended and started over as the MSZP, with Rezső Nyers as the first president.^[9][10] A small 'Communist' group led by Károly Grósz left to create a new Hungarian Communist Workers' Party, now called the Hungarian Workers' Party, which is another successor of the MSZMP.

The MSZP met the voters for the first time in the 1990 elections, the first free elections in Hungary in 44 years. It ended up in fourth place with just 33 seats.

Nyers handed over leadership to Horn, Hungary's last Communist foreign minister. Horn led the MSZP to win a majority in the 1994 parliamentary election. Even though the MSZP could have run the government alone, he chose to team up with the liberal Alliance of Free Democrats (SZDSZ). He wanted to ease worries inside and outside Hungary about a former Communist party in power, and he needed the Free Democrats' support to push through economic reforms. This way, the MSZP was released from a so-called 'political quarantine' set by other Hungarian parties, which had worked together to keep the MSZP out of decision-making for the first five years after the system changed.

After losing power in 1998, the party formed a new centre-left coalition with the Free Democrats in 2002.

In the 2006 elections, MSZP received 43.2% of the votes, giving it 190 out of 386 seats in Parliament. This allowed MSZP to keep its coalition government from the last term. In past elections, the MSZP got 10.89% (1990), 32.98% (1994), 32.92% (1998), and 42.05% (2002).

After a successful referendum to remove fees, MSZP created Hungary's first minority government when SZDSZ withdrew from the coalition by 1 May 2008.

On March 21, 2009, Ferenc Gyurcsány announced he was stepping down as Prime Minister because he could not manage the economic crisis. Gordon Bajnai was chosen by MSZP to be Prime Minister in March 2009 and took office on April 14. Gyurcsány also quit as party chairman, a role he held since 2007.^[11]

In the 2009 European Parliament election, MSZP lost many supporters, getting only 17.37% of the votes and winning four seats instead of the previous nine.

The Hungarian Socialist Party lost badly in the 2010 election (won by Fidesz and the Christian Democrats with a two-thirds majority), getting only 19.3% of the votes and 59 seats in parliament.

In the 2014 European Parliament election, MSZP had its worst loss since the 1990 parliamentary election, finishing in third place with only 10% of the votes.^[12]

In 2020, the party's congress backed a change in its structure. Instead of one leader, the party would have two co-leaders – a man and a woman (this same structure was used in 2019 by the Social Democratic Party of Germany).^[13]

The party was part of the United for Hungary group in the 2022 election. The opposition alliance got 34.35%, so the party lost again. This result allowed the party to get ten seats.

On October 19, 2024, during the party's renewal of office, Imre Komjáthi was re-elected as chairman for two years, and the co-chairman system was removed.^[14]

1. ↑ Freedom House (24 December 2013). Nations in Transit 2013: Democratization from Central Europe to Eurasia. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. pp. 255–. ISBN 978-1-4422-3119-1.
2. ↑ Nordsieck, Wolfram (2018). "Hungary". Parties and Elections in Europe.
3. ↑ Dimitri Almeida (27 April 2012). The Impact of European Integration on Political Parties: Beyond the Permissive Consensus. CRC Press. p. 71. ISBN 978-1-136-34039-0. Retrieved 14 July 2013.
4. ↑ José Magone (26 August 2010). Contemporary European Politics: A Comparative Introduction. Routledge. p. 456. ISBN 978-0-203-84639-1. Retrieved 19 July 2013.
5. ↑ Petr Kopecký; Peter Mair; Maria Spirova (26 July 2012). Party Patronage and Party Government in European Democracies. Oxford University Press. p. 165. ISBN 978-0-19-959937-0.
6. ↑ Igor Guardiancich (21 August 2012). Pension Reforms in Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe: From Post-Socialist Transition to the Global Financial Crisis. Routledge. p. 95. ISBN 978-1-136-22595-6.
7. ↑ "Hungary - Europe Elects".
8. ↑ "Public Research Europe hungaria" (PDF). www.chathamhouse.org.
9. ↑ Harden, Blaine (1989-10-08). "HUNGARY FORMS NEW PARTY". The Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2025-07-13.
10. ↑ Hamilton, Denise (1989-06-25). "Reformer to Head Hungary's Communist Party". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2025-07-13.
11. ↑ "Hungary's PM resigns post as Socialist Party chairman". news.xinhuanet.com. Xinhua. Retrieved 2025-07-13.
12. ↑ Origo (2014-05-25). "Egyetlen ábrán megnézheti az MSZP tragédiáját". ORIGO (in Hungarian). Retrieved 2025-07-13.
13. ↑ "MSZP Urges Opposition Coordination for 2022 Election". Hungary Today. 2020-06-25. Archived from the original on 2020-06-26. Retrieved 2025-07-13.
14. ↑ "Komjáthi az MSZP elnöke, Kunhalmi nem társelnök többé". telex (in Hungarian). 2024-10-19. Retrieved 2025-07-13.