József Klekl (politician)

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József Klekl (Slovene: Jožef Klekl) (October 13, 1874 – May 30, 1948) was a Slovene Roman Catholic priest from Prekmurje and politician in Hungary, writer, governor of the Slovene People's Party (Slovenska lüdska stranka), later a delegate in Belgrade. Klekl was an active proponent of the independence of the Slovene March in Hungary (Slovenska krajina), and for some time fusion with the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs.

Early life

Klekl born in

.

On July 11, 1897, Klekl became a priest and chaplain to Ferenc Ivanóczy in Tišina. At the time, Ivanóczy was the governor of the Hungarian Slovenes. From 1902 to 1903 he was a chaplain in Dürnbach im Burgenland, and from 1903 to 1905 in Črenšovci. In 1905 he became the priest in Pečarovci. In 1910 he retired on a pension and lived in Črenšovci.

Political activity

In 1904 Klekl founded the Hungarian Slovene Catholic newspaper Marijin liszt. In 1914 he founded the semi-radical newspaper Novine. In this paper he took a stance against the Hungarisation of Prekmurje.

In 1918 the

administration came to power and Serbian forces quickly annexed Prekmurje.

For a long time the people of Prekmurje were angry with Klekl because he did not create an independent Slovene territory.^{[citation needed]} The county of Szentgotthárd thus remained in Hungary and in Prekmurje the official language became Slovene, not Prekmurje Slovene.

After the First World War

After 1920, Klekl became a delegate in the Yugoslav capital. In 1941 he enlisted in the Hungarian Army.

Klekl and Szakovics actively wrote and championed the standard Prekmurje Slovene in the 20th century, which was banned after 1945.

Klekl died in Murska Sobota in 1948.

See also

• List of Slovene writers and poets in Hungary
• Prekmurje Slovene
• Slovene March (Kingdom of Hungary)

External links

• Enciklopedija Slovenije; knjiga 5, Mladinska knjiga, Ljubljana, 1991.
• Vasi digitális könyvtár – Vasi egyházmegye
• [ Göncz László: Muravidék, 1919]
• Bence Lajos: A szlovéniai magyarság