Petőcz Kálmán (szerk.): National Populism and Slovak - Hungarian Relations in Slovakia 2006-2009 (Somorja, 2009)
Grigorij Mesežnikov: National Populism in Slovakia - Defining the Character of the State and Interpreting Select Historic Events
National Populism in Slovakia... electoral competition, political forces that are viewed as populist based on their internal character, program, values, ideological background and preferred methods of voter mobilization became an important part of the country’s party system. Since 1992, these forces have regularly posted solid results in parliamentary elections and - in case of favourable power configuration — formed coalition governments that relied on majority in parliament. Such was the case in 1992 when the HZDS formed a majority crypto-coalition government with the SNS (that turned into overt coalition a year later); in 1994 when early elections brought to power the coalition of HZDS - ZRS - SNS; and finally in 2006 when the incumbent administration was formed by the coalition of SMER-SD - SNS - ĽS-HZDS. The general approach to power execution may be viewed as the basic criterion to distinguish between different protagonists of populist politics in Slovakia; based on this typology, one may identify ‘hard’ (authoritarian) and ‘soft’ (prevailingly non-authoritarian) populism. In early stages of transformation, i.e. before the process of EU integration was launched, Slovakia’s political landscape generated the first generation of populist politicians (i.e. ‘hard’ populists gathered at the time in the HZDS and SNS); the second generation of populists began to emerge during the period of reviving the country’s integration ambitions (i.e. between 1998 and 2002) and gained its political foothold immediately before and after Slovakia’s EU accession when ‘soft’ populists (SMER-SD) became a dominant political force.2 The contemporary period may be characterized by mutual cooperation between both generations and types of populist actors; in 2006, their cooperation was upgraded to the government level. Protaqonísts of NatíonaI PopulisM A typical representative of national populism in Slovakia is the Slovak National Party (SNS). The party was founded in spring 1990 by the means of publicly subscribing to the legacy of the historic SNS; several months later, in the first free parliamentary elections in the country’s modem history, it received enough votes to qualify to the national parliament, the Slovak National Council. It has evolved into a relevant political subject and has been represented in parliament ever since 1990, except for the hiatus between 2002 and 2006 when it remained outside the assembly due to an internal rift that led to a defeat in the 2002 elections. Between 1990 and 1992, the party was the weightiest political representative of Slovak separatism. Relatively soon after it emerged and entered parliament, it began to champion the idea of Slovakia’s state sovereig-41
