Miklas was highly unpopular among Austrian Nazis, as he refused to commute the death sentences imposed on assassins of Chancellor Dollfuss after the failed July Putsch in 1934. In view of the rising pressure by Nazi Germany, the Austrofascist state approached the Kingdom of Italy under Duce Benito Mussolini and the Kingdom of Hungary. In 1936 Miklas entertained Regent Miklós Horthy at Wörthersee.