István Rakovszky

István Rakovszky de Nagyrákó et Nagyselmecz
Rakovszky (1) with Austrian Minister-President Baron Max Wladimir von Beck (2) and Austrian Minister of Agriculture Leopold von Auersperg (3).
Prime Minister of the Rival Government of the Kingdom of Hungary
In office 21 October – 26 October 1921
Speaker of the National Assembly of Hungary
In office 18 February 1920 – 30 July 1921
Succeeded by	Gaszton Gaál
Personal details
Born	(1858-06-18)June 18, 1858 Vienna, Austrian Empire
Died	August 12, 1931(1931-08-12) (aged 73) Budapest, Kingdom of Hungary
Nationality	Hungarian
Political party	Catholic People's Party, KGSZP, KNEP
Profession	politician

The native form of this personal name is nagyrákói és nagyselmeczi Rakovszky István. This article uses Western name order when mentioning individuals.

István Rakovszky de Nagyrákó et Nagyselmecz (18 June 1858 - 12 August 1931) was a legitimist Hungarian politician. During the Second Royal coup d'état Charles IV returned to Hungary to try unsuccessfully to retake his throne. The king formed a rival government in Sopron and appointed Rakovszky Prime Minister.

Biography

Early life

Born in Vienna, his parents were István Rakovszky (1832-1891) and Ilona Majthényi (1839-1903). He had three siblings: Béla, Ferenc and Marianne. István Rakovszky married to Baroness Mária Majthényi de Kesselőkeő, their children were Egon, Miklós, Mária and Zsófia.

He finished his secondary school studies in Pozsony (now: Bratislava, Slovakia). After the law studies he marched in into the Austro-Hungarian Army but he had to demobilize because of his disease. He travelled to Venice to treatment. Returning to Liptó County he settled down in his possession which near to Nagyselmec. Soonly he played a significant role in the county's oppositional movements. He had been to France many times.

Political career

On the time of the ecclesiastical political fights he took part in the foundation of the Catholic People's Party in 1895. He served as deputy chairman of the party from 1903. He became known politician after the Catholic Congress of 1896 where he talked about the social objectives of the Christian politics as a lecturer, on a unusual manner. Rakovszky belonged to the Catholic political movements' conservative-feudal wing.

He was member of the House of Representatives from 1896 to 1918 and of the National Assembly of Hungary from 1918 to 1926. He was one of the plenary sessions' most active representative. He representatived Csorna until 1918 as politician of the Catholic People's Party. He served as parlamentarian clerk between 1896 and 1899. Rakovszky signed in the names of his party the pact between the opposition and Prime Minister Kálmán Széll on 23 february 1899. He participated in the reforming of law about the representative incompatibility.

Rakovszky gave many hundred speech in the parliament, he regularly took the floor during the discussion of the budget year and the house rules. Besides these he pronounced his word in foreign affairs, internal political and economic topics.

He supplied the position of deputy speaker of the House of Representatives between 1905 and 1910 (second deputy speaker to 1906; fist to 1910). He was member of the Coalition's leading committee during the Hungarian Constitutional Crisis of 1903-1907. The king Francis Joseph requested his opinion from the evolving situation. He substituted the illness speaker, Gyula Justh on 19 February 1906, when the army occupied the Országgyűlés to dissolve it. He protested in the course of the assembly against the armed occupation and sent the two royal manuscripts back to the king's military commissioner without a resolution.

As deputy speaker he presided more than 130 plenary sessions during the parlamentarian cycle of 1906-1911. He critizied Sándor Wekerle's government program. Francis Joseph appointed him inner secret councillor in 1907. He served as chairman of the League of Catholic People from 26 January 1908. On the open seance of the National Assembly of 1910-1918 he demanded as the leader of the People's Party, the modification of the ecclesiastical political laws into a conservative direction and the lawful guarantee of the regularity of the elections.

During the First World War he did military service, but he also took part in the House of Representatives' wartime session. The opposition wanted to place a three-membered control commission beside the government, seeing the mistakes which happened in the leading of the foreign affairs and national defences. Gyula Andrássy the Younger, Albert Apponyi and István Rakovszky were appointed the so-known confidential council's member. However their work failed because of the Minister besides the King István Burián's passive resistance, so their profession was given back. Many of his interpellations were over in this cycle to the Prime Minister and ministers. He recommended to making easier to the travels of the wartime woundeds' relatives (etc. cheaper fare). He joined the discussion about the public servants' newer wartime aid and to the debates of a wartime foreign policy. He proposed firstly the yielding of the world war heros's franchise on 25 April 1915. In this sense the franchise would have been all of older than twenty years men due, who fought in the front. The moderate opposition espoused his proposal but Prime Minister István Tisza and the governing party rejected the bill.

After the fall of the Tisza cabinet the people's party politics also bankrupted. On 29 October 1918 Archduke Joseph August appointed Count János Hadik Prime Minister. Rakovszky was elected to the position of Minister besides the King. However the Aster Revolution broke out on 31 October 1918. Mihály Károlyi and the National Council took over the power.

During the transition period he lived retiredly. At the time of the Hungarian Soviet Republic he was arrested for a brief time. His political documents were confiscated. From Autumn 1919 he represented the Christian national direction. From September he served as member of the Catholic Economical and Social Party's Presidential Council. This party merged with the Christian National Party, the KNEP established. Rakovszky became member of the National Assembly in 1920 as KNEP representative.

Rakovszky was appointed Speaker of the National Assembly of Hungary on 18 February 1920. He was one of the signer of the temporary direction of the sovereign power's practice in this quality. He observed the house rules watchfully, forcefully and impartially. He gave his most memorable speech on 4 June 1920, at the time of the signification of the Treaty of Trianon: "The treaty will be signed today, which causes cutting up our millennial country. It is called peace treaty, which does not promise eternal peace, but eternal unrest,

External links

• Magyar életrajzi lexikon
• Unsuccessful assasination against Rakovszky
• Death of Rakovszky
• Memoir