Petőcz Kálmán (szerk.): National Populism and Slovak - Hungarian Relations in Slovakia 2006-2009 (Somorja, 2009)
Kálmán Petőcz: National Populism and Electoral Behaviour
Kálmán Petöcz A comparison of changes in voting patterns of Slovak voters from Šamorin and Komárno reveals several interesting findings. Most importantly, it is rapid and virtually constant deterioration in leftist-populist and nationalpopulist parties’ election performance in Šamorín; these parties’ decline was slightly interrupted in 2002 but resumed again in 2006, despite their convincing triumph on the national level. In Komárno, the power ratio between the two principal blocs (i.e. civic-rightist and national-socialist) has remained relatively balanced, perhaps except 1998 when local voters joined the rest of the country and voted against Mečiar. There is a glaring difference between voting patterns in these constituencies and those in Slovak enclaves of the Komárno district, which may be illustrated on the example of Dulovce (please see Graph 7). Here, voter support for the national-socialist bloc is almost invariable and the only relevant changes take place within the bloc, i.e. between individual parties (for instance, HZDS voters gradually drift toward SMER-SD and SNS camps). It is also interesting to compare the two towns in south-eastern Slovakia that are located in regions with strongly unfavourable development indicators. In Tornaľa, one may observe a gradual growth in voter support for the national-socialist bloc, particularly for its leftist-populist segment; however, there is also a disturbing trend of increasing voter support for parties standing on two extreme poles, namely the SNS and the KSS. In Kráľovský Chlmec, leftist voting patterns clearly prevail; however, there are significant fluctuations in voter support for individual parties. In 1998, local voters most likely responded to leftist-populist messages conveyed by parties we placed into the civic-rightist bloc, i.e. the SDK and the SOP (for instance, the promise of Mikuláš Dzurinda to double wages or a clearly leftist-populist presidential campaign of Rudolf Schuster a year later). It is plain to see that a significant share of former SDL voters defected to SOP and SDK camps during this period. In most recent two elections, though, the power ratio between both principal blocs levelled out. The data show that radicalnationalist parties play here a substantially less relevant role within the national-socialist bloc than elsewhere (please see Graphs 5 and 6). Another peculiarity in voting patterns of Slovak voters from southern Slovak towns is very low voter support for the KDH; this political subject is much more popular in Slovak enclaves, as the Dulovce example clearly shows. In all examined towns, voter support for individual parties shows relatively significant fluctuations from one election to another. We assume that this phenomenon has to do primarily with changes in voting patterns, not only of Slovak voters but also of ethnic Hungarians and the Roma, particularly in central and eastern part of southern Slovakia. 156
