Forum announced its foundation. This was made possible by the Association and Assembly Act of September 1988. In order not to be diminished by a "divide and rule" tactic, the different oppositional groups joined in the "Opposition Round Table talks" in March 1989. They participated in the tripartite National Round Table with MSzMP and mass organisations beginning in June 1989. The Round Table could not solve all contentious points. In particular, there was discord among the oppositional parties if direct presidential elections should be held before the end of the year. The MSzMP had transformed into the Hungarian Socialist Party (MSzP) in October 1989 and Imre Pozsgay was considered a strong contender in direct presidential elections. Given its good relations with Pozsgay, the MDF did not oppose this possibility. Free Democrats and Fidesz, on the other hand, wanted to prevent a directly elected, Socialist president at any rate and therefore called for a referendum, that was held in November 1989. The SzDSz heavily attacked the MDF as "the Communists' friends" or "collaborators". While the proponents of the referendum suggested that parliamentary elections should be held first, the MDF supported direct presidential elections and therefore called for a "no" in this question. Eventually, the "yes" campaign won by a narrow margin. In October 1989 the party voted József Antall to be its president. With Antall's taking over from founding president Zoltán Bíró, the MDF shifted gradually away from the népi-nemzeti principles in their pure form. Antall represented a broadly national-liberal or liberal-conservative tendency, opening the party for a wider political spectrum and social base, especially the national-minded and Christian middle class. It transformed into a right-of-centre "omnibus" party, or even a "catch-all party". Government period (1990–1994) In March and April 1990, the MDF won the first free parliamentary elections after the end of Communism in Hungary with 24.7% of the votes and 164 of 386 seats. It formed a centre-right government coalition with the ideologically close Independent Smallholders Party (FKgP) and Christian Democratic People's Party (KDNP). József Antall became Prime Minister. The MDF was now divided in two major internal tendencies. The dominant one was Antall's government circle, characterised by pragmatic, liberal conservatism, constitutionalism and legalism. The Antall government carried important reforms through that completed Hungary's transition from communist rule, e.g. laws on local administration, the status of civil servants and redemption of the old regime's wrongs. Still, traditional and religious