Dreapta maghiară între laceraţii şi hegemonie în ultimii ani ai Regenţei lui Horthy

The essay attempts to frame some characteristics of the tendencies existing in the conservative sectors of Hungarian politics during a crucial period of Hungarian history, namely the one preceding the Second World War, characterized by the Horthy Regency, variously interpreted by scholars. During this period, some contradictions were revealed in the various strands of conservative and nationalist ideology in Hungary, divided between revanchism (characteristic of which was the attitude towards the Treaty of Trianon), isolation and the push towards dialogue with other nationalisms that were spreading across Europe at the time. The liberalism flaunted by the ruling groups coexisted in Hungary with authoritarian tones and measures and, as the populist literature of the time (quite influential and in turn rich in nuances) affirmed, modernity (especially in the urban bourgeoisie) and significant residues of a feudal world seemed to coexist in the country. Anti-Semitic tendencies appear in the same period examined and, even if they do not initially seem dominant or determining (and not even always fully felt), they acquire more and more space in political propaganda, forced to abandon the idea of an autonomous “Hungarian way”, under the pressure exerted by the hegemonic powers, and above all by Germany. In essence, Hungary seems to have approached, towards the end of the 1930s, some typical Nazi themes without having accepted them with real awareness, but experiencing them as an “obligatory choice”, dictated by the reasons of a "political realism" that appears rather as a desperate refuge.