Petőcz Kálmán (szerk.): National Populism and Slovak - Hungarian Relations in Slovakia 2006-2009 (Somorja, 2009)
Kálmán Petőcz: National Populism and Electoral Behaviour
Kálmán Petőcz That is why the decision to form the incumbent administration after the 2006 elections was the most logical choice in terms of reflecting involved parties’ voters’ value orientations. The election slogan advertised by Ivan Gašparovič before the 2009 presidential elections (“I think nationally and feel socially”) astutely reflected true views and value orientations of a significant share of voters of the SMER-SD - LS-HZDS - SNS - KSS bloc. In order to capture and express this bloc’s value orientation, we dubbed it a bloc of nationally and socially oriented parties or a national-populist bloc. In line with analyses of these parties’ policies and strategies presented in other chapters of this publication, we intend to use these two terms interchangeably or as synonyms. The principal focus of this study is electoral behaviour of citizens who live in southern Slovakia, particularly those of Slovak origin. When examining the connection between national populism and Slovak-Hungarian relations, our basic hypothesis was that the key to both issues lay in southern Slovakia. Its essence is to define a mutually acceptable model of both communities’ coexistence in situations when ethnic Hungarians form a minority (be it on the national, regional or local level) as well as in situations when they form a numerical majority (be it on the micro-regional or local level). Substantially lower support for the national-populist bloc among Slovak voters from the south compared to those from the north seems to corroborate the hypothesis on peaceful coexistence of Slovaks and ethnic Hungarians in southern Slovakia that is only disturbed by politicians’ insensitive interventions from above; however, if electoral behaviour of Slovaks from the south and from the north failed to show marked differences, it would imply a necessity to revise many elements of minority policy pursued by the government as well as by relevant political parties (both majority and minority ones). The point is that in such a case, critical masses of two electorate segments that are diametrically different in terms of professed values would inevitably clash in southern Slovakia; needless to say, none of these two segments would ever be completely satisfied with their status. DEÍiNÍi\iq tIhe Terms of Southern SIovaI<i'a, EtIhinícaIIy MíxecI Terrítory aincJ Terrítory liNbAbiTEtJ by EtEníc EIunparíans In Slovak as well as Hungarian political and social science, let alone media vernacular or colloquial language, the terms of ‘southern Slovakia’, ‘ethnically mixed territory’ and ‘territory inhabited by ethnic Hungarians’ are used almost as synonyms. The Hungarian specialized literature has coined 104
