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, 2009the Štúrovo constituency where SMER-SD received less than 30% of thepopular vote among non-Hungarian voters.Similar conclusions go for election results posted by the ¼S-HZDS led byVladimír Meèiar. His movement’s success rate among Slovak voters in particulardistricts of southern Slovakia did not essentially differ from its electionresults on the national level (8.79%). A conclusion may be drawn that the ¼S-HZDS was relatively more successful in the west than in the east. In the morebackward regions of Novohrad, Gemer and East Slovakia, a substantial shareof former ¼S-HZDS voters cast their ballots for SMER-SD, swayed mostprobably by its leaders’ strong social rhetoric. Interesting in this respect wasthe Rimavská Sobota district where former ¼S-HZDS voters defected in significantnumbers to SMER-SD as well as SNS camps. A potential factor heremay have been a strong Romany community in this region.Table 5 compares election results of Ivan Gašparoviè in the 2009 presidentialelections to those posted by the bloc of SMER – SNS – HZDS in the2006 parliamentary elections in ethnically mixed districts of southern Slovakia.Table 5Election results of Ivan Gašparoviè in the 2009 presidential elections comparedto election results of the SMER – SNS – HZDS bloc in the 2006parliamentary elections in southern Slovakia (%) Source: Statistical Office of the Slovak Republic; author’s own calculations.116