Ústřední politická autorita maďarské menšiny třicátých let 20. století – hrabě János Esterházy (1901–1957)
The Main Authority of the Hungarian Minority in 1930s – Count János Esterházy (1901–1957)

Summary/Abstract: Count János Esterházy became one of the leading political figures of the Hungarian minority in Czechoslovakia in 1930s. In 1932 he was elected a leader of one of two Hungarian parliamentary minority parties, the Provincial Christian-Socialist Party. In 1935 he took a seat in Chamber of Deputies of National Assembly and in 1936 he became an executive chairman of the United Hungarian Party (Egyesült Magyar Párt; EMP). Also thanks to his influence, legislators of both Hungarian parliamentary minority parties did not adopt a negative attitude towards the presidential election for the first time and voted for Edvard Beneš in December 1935. President Beneš offered a post of a minister without portfolio to Esterházy in September 1936; however, Esterházy rejected to enter into the government. He had considerable credit that the Czechoslovak government contrary to Sudeten German areas was not forced to proclaim a state of emergency in Hungarian speaking territories during the acute domestic political crisis of the First Republic at the close of summer and in autumn 1938. He was the only deputy of the Assembly of the Slovak Republic which did not vote for the constitutional bill making legal the deportation of Slovak Jews on 15 May 1942. After the Second World War he was sentenced to death by hanging for treason “in contumaciam” by the National Court in Bratislava. He died in Mírov prison in 1957.

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