Dinnyés, Lajos (1901–1961)
Smallholder politician. He studied at agricultural college and then began to farm in 1930 on 99 hectares of land. He joined the Independent Smallholders’ Party (FKgP) in the same year. Dinnyés was a member of Parliament in 1931–9. He took part in the wartime resistance and became a member of the legislature again from April 1945 until his death. He was one of the leaders of the Smallholders’ Party and joined the government as defence minister in 1947. On May 31, 1947, on the proposal of the Hungarian Communist Party (MKP), he took over as prime minister from Ferenc Nagy, who had been obliged to resign while on holiday in Switzerland. Although he cooperated with the communists in their efforts to obtain exclusive power, he was forced to resign on December 10, 1948, after Finance Minister István Nyárády had defected to the West. Thereafter, he was president of the Combined Agricultural Experimental Institute, and from 1952, director general of the National Agricultural Library and Documentation Centre.
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