Sándor Graf Festetics

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Sándor Graf Festetics (31 May 1882-12 September 1956) was a Hungarian nobleman and cabinet minister who later became an advocate of Nazism in Hungary.

Coming from one of Hungary's leading families, Count Festetics was amongst those chosen to serve in the cabinet of Mihály Károlyi, being appointed Minister of Defence in 1918. Although this was to prove ill-fated, Festetics remained committed to parliamentary politics, becoming a supporter of István Bethlen.

After a spell away from politics Festetics, who had become convinced of Nazism, took charge of the tiny Hungarian National Socialist Peoples Party in 1933, using the forune he had inherited from his uncle Prince Tassilo to seek to expand the group. By 1934 he had come together with Zoltán Meskó and Fidel Palffy to form an alliance of their movements. Before long however he was expelled as his commitment to anti-Semitism was seen to be weak, as he continued to employ Jews on his estates. He became associated with minor movements led by István Balogh and Kálmán Hubay from then on, sitting in parliament from 1935 until his retirement in 1939 under various lables. He took no part in politics during the Second World War and died as a private citizen at his home near Lake Balaton.