On 6 August 1919 István Friedrich, leader of the White House Comrades Association (a right-wing, counter-revolutionary group), ousted the government of Gyula Peidl[9] and seized power in a coup with the backing of the Royal Romanian Army.

He was succeeded by Károly Huszár on 24 November, who served as prime minister and interim president until the restoration of the monarchy a few months later.

[13] A "White Terror" ensued that led to the imprisonment, torture, and execution without trial of communists, socialists, Jews, leftist intellectuals, sympathizers with the Károlyi and Kun regimes, and others who threatened the traditional Hungarian political order that the officers sought to re-establish.

[13] The White Terror continued to plague Jews and leftists, unemployment and inflation soared, and penniless Hungarian refugees poured across the border from neighboring countries and burdened the floundering economy.

[13] In January 1920, Hungarian men and women cast the first secret ballots in the country's political history and elected a large counter-revolutionary and agrarian majority to the unicameral parliament.