MIXED POLITICAL POSITION IN HUNGARY

Chronicle (Levin), 8 September 1947, Page 5

MIXED POLITICAL POSITION IN HUNGARY

Received Sunday, 8.50 p.m. LONDON, Sept. 7. Reuter 's eorrespondent at Budapest says Hirlap, the Smallholders Party newspaper, surprisingly announced that the party was uniting with the Opposi tion Independent Democrats led by Father Stephen Balogh. The merger will give the Smallholders, from whom Balogh 's Party separated before the elections 86 Parliamenta,ry seats against the Communists' 100. The reunited party and the Communists form the Right and Left wings of the Coali tion Government. The reunited party announced its programme as the defence of the bourgeois way of life and the improvement of the peasants-' lot. The merger strengthens the Conservative element in the Government. A later message states that Father Balogh denied Hirlap 's merger announcement. He said negotiations were proceeding for cooperation for the common good, but tio effective agreement had yet been reached. A joint statement from the two partifs said three members of each party are continuing the negotiations for intimate cooperation. The Associated Press's Budapest eorrespondent says despite Mr. Szalca sit's statement denying that he had resigned the presidency of the Social Democratic Party, members of the party insist that all is not well withiu the party leadership and that the national executive committee when it meets on Monday might decide whether or not the Soeialists would remain in the Coalition. Informants said if the Smallholders followed suit Hungary would be plunged into another political crisis eomparable "vyith that surrounding the exit of the foi'mer Premier (Mr. Nagyj.