Petőcz Kálmán (szerk.): National Populism and Slovak - Hungarian Relations in Slovakia 2006-2009 (Somorja, 2009)
Peter Učen: Approaching National Populism
Approaching National Populism campaign and later into a version of the rule and governance15 with the broad consequences. Quite naturally, even though not without problems - both parties went through internal clashes and splits before the alliance of the radical right and national populism was possible - HZDS allied in furthering its political project for Slovakia with the SNS. In terms of combining national and social criticism, though, the SDL never became more than an occasional tactical ally of the HZDS. And it was not necessary either as for a sizable part of the Slovak electorate the ‘combined’ appeal of HZDS was far more convincing than nationalism of SNS (not speaking about KDH) and defensive ‘socialism’ of SDL. In any case, nationalism was crucial to the success of HZDS project, but their interpretation of the national was different from the nativism of SNS. To be sure, within the HZDS there were various wings, among them, along with ‘reform socialists’ of the 1968 veneer, and ideologically disinterested pragmatists, also the nativist one. Nativist intelligentsia, which rallied around Mečiar in sizeable numbers, aspired to articulate a distinctive doctrine or ideology of the Slovak national project,16 but it was Mečiar himself who was deciding on the balance of wings’ influence and accentuating the desired messages to address the electorates. As convincingly argued by Deegan-Krause, quintessential to Mečiar’s success was the capability to cement the nationalism and party choice (for HZDS) on one side, and to make this link largely independent from the version of nationalism voters preferred. The crux of author’s argument is that while in the aftermath of the regime change all types of nationalism (listed in the previous section) existed among Slovaks lacking any particular pattern, by the end of the 1990s Slovak nationalism converged around the pattern which was carefully manipulated and politicised for the sake of the interest of the ruling group: “At the beginning of the decade, Slovakia’s nationalists shared a sense of fear for the future of the Slovak nation, but they disagreed about the real source of the threat. Some saw Czechoslovakia as dominated by Czechs and therefore sought independence, some worried about Hungary and Hungarians living in southern Slovakia, and some feared that European integration would undermine Slovakia’s culture” (Deegan-Krause 2004, 651). “By the end of the same decade, Slovakia’s nationalists were more likely to see the threats to their country coming from all sides at the same time, and many speculated that enemies of the Slovak nation were actively working together in their attempt to undermine Slovakia’s sovereignty” (Deegan-Krause 2004, 652).17 It is essential for understanding Slovak national populism that nationalism^) in Slovakia had been a subject to manipulation and politicisation18 29
