Petőcz Kálmán (szerk.): National Populism and Slovak - Hungarian Relations in Slovakia 2006-2009 (Somorja, 2009)
Kálmán Petőcz: National Populism and Electoral Behaviour
National Populism and Electoral Behaviour hem Slovakia were not significantly worse than its overall election result on the national level (11.73%); in the Nové Zámky constituency, the party’s performance was substantially better than on the national level. The only district where the SNS did not perfonn well among Slovak voters was Dunajská Streda. This may be partly attributed to the fact that the overall share of Slovaks in this district is really low and some of them probably have a Hungarian identity anyway; however, we assume that an even more relevant factor is geographical closeness of Bratislava, which significantly affects electoral behaviour of inhabitants of the upper part of Žitný ostrov, the alluvial plain island formed by the Danube River. Some of them are tied to the capital by labour or social obligations; others have resettled from Bratislava to this region over the past couple of decades. A detailed analysis of incumbent ruling parties’ election performance among non-Hungarian voters from southern Slovakia reveals that the coalition of SMER-SD - SNS - LS-HZDS won in all districts except Senec and Dunajská Streda and the Štúrovo constituency! In south-western Slovakia, ruling parties posted the best overall election results in the Nové Zámky constituency and the Nitra district. To the east of the town of Šahy, they scored the most points in Novohrad and Gemer regions (i.e. Veľký Krtíš, Lučenec, Rimavská Sobota, Revúca and Rožňava districts). A mutual comparison of individual mling parties’ election results partly indicates prevailing motivation of voters from these districts. In their election rhetoric, all three parties strongly accentuated national(ist) and social(ist) elements of national populism. We believe that these elements’ mutual ratio not only varied from one party to another but also tended to change from west to east in terms of affecting electoral behaviour of Slovaks from southern Slovakia. While the rhetoric emphasizing protection of Slovakia’s national and state interests apparently seemed to work better in the west (hence better election results of the SNS), the more eastward we go the greater was the emphasis on ‘social feelings’ and criticism of economic policies pursued by centre-right parties of the previous administration (hence better election results of SMER-SD). SMER-SD recorded the best election results - approximately 40% - among Slovak inhabitants of districts plagued by high unemployment and low rate of economic development. In the west, the party posted comparable results in already mentioned constituencies of Nitra and Nové Zámky; here, however, they could be largely attributed to the strong nationalist rhetoric that lured former nationally-oriented LS-HZDS voters into the camp of SMER-SD. Generally speaking, election performance of SMER-SD in southern Slovakia was above the average. Again, the only exceptions were Senec and Dunajská Streda districts (the mentioned ‘Bratislava factor’) and 115
