Following their successful coup against the Social Democrat-composed cabinet of Gyula Peidl, the counter-revolutionary White House Comrades Association had established the Christian National Party.
Count Pál Teleki, who returned from exile, was elected its chairman, but the actual leader was István Friedrich, a key figure of the coup, who became Prime Minister on 7 August 1919.
[1] The party received support from conservative and Roman Catholic bourgeoisie and monarchist elements, mostly civil servants, industrialists and intellectuals.
After the Hungarian parliament declared the dethronement of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine, Gyula Andrássy the Younger and ten other aristocrats left the KNEP to join KNP on 14 January 1922.
[2] In the 1922 elections, the remaining part of the party lost both seats, receiving just 0.2% of the national vote.