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... People’s Party (HSUS) from the state itself, portray life in Slovakia during this period in a more positive light, disparage the regime’s repressive, undemocratic and racist character, shift responsibility for perpetrated war crimes, including deportations of Jews, from domestic actors onto their external partners (i.e. Nazi Germany) and emphasize the positive role of its president Jozef Tiso. The said inclination to favourable perception of the wartime Slovak State leads to (directly or indirectly) confrontational efforts to distinguish from certain opinion or identity groups, including people with anti-fascist and liberal-democratic views, supporters of the common Czechoslovak state, the Jews, the Roma, the Czechs, non-Catholics, etc. After 1989, principal upholders of revisionist views of the period of 1939-1945 included nationalistically-oriented cultural associations and individuals (including some historians), Matica slovenská, and a significant part of the Catholic Church leaders; on the level of the country’s party system, it was primarily the SNS. The SNS began to advertise its positive views on Slovak statehood from World War II immediately after its founding in 1990 and furthered them every time it was part of government (i.e. in 1993-1994, 1994-1998 and 2006-2009). In March 1998 it issued a declaration in honour of founding the Slovak State in 1939, calling it the beginning of the first sovereign statehood of the modem Slovak nation. According to the SNS, March 14, 1939, “clearly showed the Christian values to which the Slovak nation must be anchored”.39 The SNS insisted on introducing The History of Slovakia and the Slovaks, a history textbook by revisionist historian Milan Ďurica, to primary schools’ curriculum. SNS Vice-Chairperson Anna Malíková called the book whose author strove to excuse deportations of Jews during World War II a “very valuable and objective overview of Slovakia’s history”.40 In April 1998, the SNS publicly called Tiso a “martyr who defended the nation and Christianity against Bolshevism and liberalism”. Addressing the nature of Slovakia’s political and constitutional regime between 1939 and 1945, the party declared: “The concept of harmonizing state of the estates that complied with social teachings of the Catholic Church with a balancing role of parliament surpassed European development in the sensitive social area during this period”.41 In October 1998, SNS Chairman Slota openly called for Tiso’s rehabilitation, stating: “Those who claim that the wartime Slovak State in 1939-1945 was fascist simply play their mean dirty tricks.”42 Then SNS spokesman Rafael Rafaj who became the head of the party’s parliamentary 55
