Petőcz Kálmán (szerk.): National Populism and Slovak - Hungarian Relations in Slovakia 2006-2009 (Somorja, 2009)

Peter Učen: Approaching National Populism

Peter Učeň

25 This highlights serious psychological shortcomings in the politics of the previous government which in its diction sounded a bit elitist: “we do right policies; you’d better to get ready for enjoying its fruits... some time in future”. Fico understood that satisfaction given to people should be immediate and it does not need to take the form of policies.

26 Regarding the latter, we believe that ‘illiberal staple’, related to the commonly shared populist dislike for liberal-democratic constraints, facilitates the cooperation. Considering more pragmatic aspects, the parties concerned also shared a protracted opposition experience. Their cooperation (may) have been facilitated by the joint concern for accessing power in order to enliven their political projects, funnel the material resources to sustain their party organizations, and, last but not least, to satisfy ambitions of the ‘starving’ party activists.

27 National populism as forget by Vladimír Mečiar in the 1990ws was certainly a par excellence opposition strategy in society like Slovakia. There are, however, reasons to doubt that its ‘replication’ could be attractive to the incumbent ruling group given that in the past it proved to be a disastrous way of rule.

28 For example, we take the view that politics amenable to analysis in terms of national populism as defined in this text arose also on the Magyar side of the Slovak political scene. It took the form of the Coexistence Movement which in 1998 merged into SMK.-MKP. Admitting our lack of competence to deal with the topics in detail, we believe that it should be addressed in some way by this project.

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