Conservative, sympathetic to the dictatorship. Only one admiral has been president of a European country

Conservative and dictator sympathizer. Miklós Horthy was president of Hungary a century ago, between the world wars. He ended his life in exile… in Portugal.

Miklós Horthy was born on June 18, 1868, Kenderes, Hungary, at a time when his homeland was still called Austria-Hungary.

A member of a Protestant noble family, at the age of 14 Horthy entered the Austro-Hungarian naval academy in Fiume, now Rijeka, in Croatia.

field assistant Emperor Francis Joseph (1909-1914), he distinguished himself as a naval commander in the First World War, breaking the Allied blockade of the Adriatic several times.

Promoted to admiral in 1918, it was Horthy who oversaw the transfer of the Austro-Hungarian fleet to Yugoslavia in October 1918.

The following year, at the request of the counter-revolutionary government in Szeged, Hungary, Horthy organized an army to oppose the communist regime, remember to

And it was then that, in the interwar period, he was head of state of Hungary. But his political career began in an unusual way… and I wasn’t supposed to be president, nor was he elected through elections.

In fact, the military man was appointed regent in 1920, when the Hungarian Parliament, elected in January of that year, declared itself in favor of restoring the monarchy.

However, after coming to power, Horthy changed his mind and he did not want to fulfill his oath: he frustrated the efforts of King Charles IV to regain his throne and the conservative presided for several years.

In the pre-World War II period, Horthy did not appreciate Adolf Hitler. Although, sympathized with the “crusade against Bolshevism” of the German dictator, refers to Britannica, and initially agreed to Hungary’s accession to the German side in the Second World War.

Later, this indecisive admiral changed his mind again and wanted to withdraw Hungary from the War. When he tried to do so, he ended up being kidnapped by Germans. He ended his life in exile… in Portugalwhere his memoirs, entitled “Confidential Documents”, were published in 1965.