national populism and slovak – hungarian relations in - MEK

Kálmán PetõczNational Populism and Slovak – Hungarian Relations in Slovakia 2006 – 2009. Forum Minority Research Institute Šamorín – Somorja, 2009It is important to note that the featured map divides Slovakia into 50 electoraldistricts or constituencies (obvod in Slovak) while most media showed mapsdividing the country into 79 districts of general administration (okres inSlovak). 1 On these maps, the southern strip marking the territory where IvetaRadièová had defeated Ivan Gašparoviè was continuous, stretching alongSlovakia’s entire border with Hungary from Bratislava to Èierna nad Tisou.In his run for re-election, incumbent President Ivan Gašparoviè was supportedby two ruling parties – SMER–Social Democracy (SMER-SD) led byPrime Minister Robert Fico and the Slovak National Party (SNS) led by JánSlota. The third ruling party, namely the People’s Party–Movement for aDemocratic Slovakia (¼S-HZDS) led by former premier Vladimír Meèiarrefused to endorse Mr. Gašparoviè and even overtly dissociated itself from hiscandidature. Nevertheless, it is very likely that a significant proportion ofHZDS supporters voted for the incumbent president as well, particularly in thesecond round when the atmosphere within society had aggravated due tonationalist rhetoric of the SNS and reticence of the president and the primeminister. The SNS focused on ‘warning’ Slovak voters against a potentialthreat of proclaiming Hungarian autonomy in southern Slovakia if IvetaRadièová won the elections. Several days before the second round of elections,unknown perpetrators circulated leaflets in a number of municipalities aroundsouth-western Slovakia claiming that Radièová had “promised autonomy to theHungarians”. A similar advertisement was later commissioned by an agencythat worked for President Gašparoviè. Eventually it turned out that the originaladvertisement had been commissioned by the SNS. On a special press conference,Ján Slota declared that it would be “sick if the Hungarian minorityelected the head of state for the majority.” Neither President Gašparoviè norPremier Fico did anything to dissociate themselves from these assertions. 2A general view within the liberally oriented intellectual elite is that“frightening with Hungarians and their autonomy resonates especiallyamong voters from the north of the country who rarely come in contactwith citizens of Hungarian origin.” 3 This view is seemingly corroborated byexact statistical data from all previously held elections as well as by varioussociological surveys analyzing electoral behaviour in Slovakia. 4 If weexamined the results of all previous parliamentary elections, we would findout that parties with a strong national-populist appeal (i.e. SNS, ¼S-HZDSand SMER-SD) had always lost in southern districts including Bratislavaand Košice; these districts have been dominated by ethnic Hungarian partiesand centre-right parties with a strong pro-European and civic appeal.Do these statistical data actually justify a conclusion that electoralbehaviour of Slovaks (i.e. voters of Slovak nationality) inhabiting northern100