national populism and slovak – hungarian relations in - MEK

Annex – Kálmán PetõczNational Populism and Slovak – Hungarian Relations in Slovakia 2006 – 2009. Forum Minority Research Institute Šamorín – Somorja, 2009that Slovakia is equally unable to adopt effective measures aimed at haltingthe irreversible assimilation process. The assimilation process is relativelyslow only in regions where ethnic Hungarians make up a relativelyhomogeneous and compact entity, i.e. especially on Žitný ostrov(Csallóköz), an alluvial island formed by the Danube River, and the stripbetween Komárno and Štúrovo.Stereotype 7: Ethnic party is obsoleteThe last stereotypical argument we would like to discuss is the opinion thatpolitical parties based on ethnic foundation are obsolete in modern Europe;therefore, advocates of this view argue, SMK–MKP as an ethnic party isan unnatural element on Slovakia’s political landscape.This argument is incorrect in its entirety.First of all, it is a completely normal phenomenon that national minoritiesin Europe are organized in – and represented by – their own politicalparties. The most commonly known examples of such parties that are alsorepresented in their respective countries’ national parliaments include theSwedish People’s Party (Svenska Folkpartiet) in Finland, the SouthTyrolean People’s Party (Südtiroler Volkspartei) that represents ethnicGermans in Italy and the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (Dviženie zaprava i svobody) that represents ethnic Turks in Bulgaria. Of course, thereare many other such parties all around Europe.Secondly, a party that champions minority rights may not necessarily bean ethnic party in the literal sense of that word. After all, it is very difficultto define what an ethnic party is as there are no objective criteria. Inthe European Union, there is not a single party representing national minoritieswhose statutes would include a provision on ethnic exclusivity, andSMK–MKP is no exception in this respect. In other words, membership inthese parties is open to all citizens. If any party’s statutes spelled out a provisionon ethnic exclusivity, it would amount to discrimination, let alonethe fact that such clause would be virtually unenforceable in practice asaffiliation to national or ethnic groups is a matter of free choice.Thirdly, even if we did agree that SMK–MKP was an ‘ethnic’ party inthe sense that it defends primarily the interests of its principal target group(i.e. ethnic Hungarians living in Slovakia) and that its candidates’ lists featurealmost exclusively persons of Hungarian origin, we would also haveto add that this practice is nothing unusual in Slovakia’s political reality asnationwide political parties representing the majority apply exactly the sameapproach. As it was poignantly observed by Miroslav Kusý, not a single296