decreased the prestige of its moderate wing and strengthened its radical members. After the death of the 74-year old Hlinka in August 1938, the presidium of the party decided that the post of chairman would remain unoccupied. The party was subsequently led by vice-chairman Jozef Tiso until October 1939, when he became the new chairman. During the Czechoslovak crisis between the spring and fall of 1938, the HSĽS retained a common Czechoslovak platform. The party officially supported the national mobilization of Czechoslovakia against Nazi Germany and rejected the appeals of the Sudeten German Party to radicalize its position. Second Czechoslovak Republic (1938–39) The situation dramatically changed in the fall of 1938. On October 6, 1938, after the Czech region of Czechoslovakia had lost its border regions to Germany following the Munich Agreement, the executive committee of the HSĽS together with most other Slovak parties declared the autonomy of Slovakia within Czechoslovakia. The Prague government accepted this declaration, and appointed Jozef Tiso as the Prime Minister of Autonomous Slovakia on the same day. The HSĽS became the dominant party in the subsequent Slovak governments. After the declaration of autonomy, internal tension between the Catholic conservative and radical fascist wings continued to grow. The conservative wing led by Tiso preserved its majority in the presidium of the party, but the radicals in turn gained influence and held important positions in new organizations like the Hlinka Guard (Hlinkova Garda) and the Slovak National Committees (Slovenské Národné Výbory). On November 8, 1938, after the Slovak part of Czechoslovakia had lost one third of its territory to Hungary through the First Vienna Award (Vienna Arbitration), the Slovak branches of all parties except the Communists and Social Democrats merged with the HSĽS and formed the Hlinka's Slovak People's Party – Party of Slovak National Unity (HSĽS-SSNJ). The Slovak National Party joined the HSĽS-SSNJ coalition on December 15, 1938. This new party quickly developed clearly authoritarian characteristics. It immediately subjected the leftist and Jewish parties to considerable harassment. In the December 1938 Slovak general election, the HSĽS-SSNJ coalition won 97.3% of the vote, out of which 72% went to candidates of the original HSĽS. The Social Democrats and Communists were shut out because the HSĽS-SSNJ government refused to publish new election procedures until it was too late for these parties to select their candidates. As of January 31, 1939, all parties except for the HSĽS-SSNJ, the German