Christian Women's League

The Christian Women's League (Hungarian: Keresztény Női Tábor, KNT) was a political party in Hungary in the period after World War II.

History

The party was founded in 1918 as a Catholic Social movement.[1] It was initially led by Margit Slachta, who became the first women elected to the Hungarian Parliament in 1920 as a representative of the Christian National Union Party.[2] Slachta lost her seat in the 1922 elections after she was prevented from running again.[3]

She returned to Parliament following the 1945 elections, in which she was elected on the Civic Democratic Party list. However, she resigned from the party in January 1946 to sit as an independent.[4] Subsequently the Christian Women's League ran as a standalone party in the 1947 elections, winning four seats.[5] Prior to the 1949 elections, several parties were forced to join the Communist-led Hungarian Independent People's Front, with the Front running a single list chosen by the Hungarian Working People's Party. Slachta applied to run in the elections, but was turned down.[2]

References

1. Bonnie G. Smith (2008) The Oxford Encyclopedia of Women in World History, p512
2. Francisca de Haan, Krasimira Daskalova, Anna Loutfi (2006) Biographical Dictionary of Women's Movements and Feminisms in Central, Eastern, and South Eastern Europe: 19th and 20th Centuries, Central European University Press, p522
3. de Haan et al, p523
4. Mária Palasik (2011) Chess Game for Democracy: Hungary Between East and West, 1944-1947, McGill-Queen's Press, p39
5. Dieter Nohlen & Philip Stöver (2010) Elections in Europe: A data handbook, p931 ISBN 978-3-8329-5609-7