Petőcz Kálmán (szerk.): National Populism and Slovak - Hungarian Relations in Slovakia 2006-2009 (Somorja, 2009)
Kálmán Petőcz: National Populism and Electoral Behaviour
Kálmán Petőcz everywhere else: voter support for the national-populist bloc in towns is slightly lower than in villages. Even here, though, the difference is not as significant as one might expect based on the assumption that voter support for civic-rightist parties would be substantially higher in areas where Slovaks and ethnic Hungarians live truly mixed and in constant interaction with one another than in areas where they live isolated from each other. The following table compares overall results of the 2006 parliamentary elections and the 2009 presidential elections in southern districts to those in towns located in particular districts, all calculated for the set on non- Hungarian voters (i.e. SMK-MKP non-voters). Again, data for the 2006 parliamentary elections were calculated by the same formula as in Table 17, i.e. the ballots cast for all parties running in the elections were divided into two categories that were for the purposes of this study dubbed as ‘civic bloc’ and ‘nationalist bloc’. Table 18 is perhaps even more demonstrative than Table 17 in terms of exposing basic development trends. It is plain to see that on the level of districts, the nationalist bloc lost both elections only in Senec and Dunajská Streda districts. Most probably, the main reason for this was the influence of Bratislava. On the level of towns, we could also find only two such constituencies, namely Senec and Šamorín. In the 2006 parliamentary elections, the nationalist bloc also failed in Kráľovský Chlmec; three years later, though, Ivan Gašparovič won here by a relatively comfortable margin. We intend to explore the reasons behind this phenomenon by specifically examining the voting patterns of residents of four select towns in southern Slovakia, namely Šamorín, Komárno, Tomaľa and Kráľovský Chlmec. In the 2006 elections, the nationalist bloc prevailed in all other districts and towns of southern Slovakia; however, it is interesting to watch changes in voting preferences between 2006 and 2009. Election results of the nationalist bloc’s candidate declined significantly in all towns of south-western Slovakia; the difference fluctuated between 6% and 20%. The only exception was Levice, which is located de facto behind the ethnic border. A similar deterioration in the nationalist bloc’s election performance could also be detected on the level of districts across the area. The only exceptions were the Nové Zámky constituency as well as Levice and Šaľa districts. Apparently, an important role was played here by the ethnic border factor that has been discussed in greater detail when analyzing the voting patterns of 30 Slovak-dominated villages to the north of Nové Zámky. 150
