Petőcz Kálmán (szerk.): National Populism and Slovak - Hungarian Relations in Slovakia 2006-2009 (Somorja, 2009)
Kálmán Petőcz: Slovakia since 2004 - National Populism and the Hungarian Issue
Kálmán Petőcz Notes 1 Parts 1 and 2 of the present study are edited versions of texts already published by the author (Petőcz, 2007 and Petó'cz, 2008). 2 While most voters who came to polling stations on December 4, 2004, did approve the idea, the overall share of affinnative votes reached only 18.90% of all eligible voters, rendering the referendum unsuccessful; according to the Hungarian law, at least 25% of all eligible voters must vote in affirmative for a plebiscite to be successful. 3 These sentiments were faithfully described in a story headlined Magyarországellenes hangulat a hatúrontúliaknál [Behind-Border Hungarians Feel Anti-Hungarian Sentiments] run by the Internet portal www.mindentudás.hu on December 6, 2004, two days after the vote. For further information, please see http://www.mindentudas.hu/nagyvilag/20041206magyarorszagellenes.html. 4 For complete results of the 2006 parliamentary elections, please see http://portal.statistics.sk/nrsr_2006/ 5 In spring 2008, however, the PES decided to restore the party’s associated membership although the reasons that had made European socialists adopt the original decision did not change; on the contrary, nationalization of Slovakia’s political landscape continued even further. 6 Eörsi Mátyás: “Haider után Slota” [‘Slota Follows Haider’], Népszabadság, July 12, 2006. 7 Správa o plnení úloh zahraničnej politiky SR v roku 2006 [Report on Discharging Foreign Policy Tasks of the Slovak Republic in 2006], (Bratislava: Ministerstvo zahraničných vecí SR, 2007); available at: http://www.foreign.gov.sk/pk/mat/159-sprava.htm, p. 40. 8 Spoločné vyhlásenie Národnej rady Slovenskej republiky k pamätnému dňu obetí holocaustu a rasového násilia a proti prejavom extrémizmu a neznášanlivosti [Joint Declaration of the National Council of the Slovak Republic on the Day to Commemorate Victims of the Holocaust and Racial Violence and against Displays of Extremism and Intolerance], (Bratislava: Národná rada Slovenskej republiky, September 6, 2006). The full declaration is available at: www.nrsr.sk/Dynamic/Download.aspx?DocID=235911. 9 The fact that the assembly eventually passed a relatively harsh special resolution on the issue may quite paradoxically be attributed to SDK.Ú Chairman Mikuláš Dzurinda who was ‘more Catholic than the Pope’ regarding the entire matter. Forming the ad hoc coalition of SNS - SDKU - KJDH that incorporated in the resolution even harsher formulations than SMER-SD could hope for may certainly be regarded as a very peculiar moment of the country’s political development in this period. 10 Classic examples of Csáky’s clumsy communication with the media were two extensive interviews for serious weekly magazines (.týždeň and Új Szó) immediately after his election. In both interviews, Csáky avoided answering questions directly, reacted irritably and engaged in controversies with journalists. 11 This statement was first aired in Saturday Dialogues, a program broadcast by the Slovak Radio on October 6, 2007. 12 The full text of the declaration is available at: www.nrsr.sk 13 The projects envisaged by the program included, for instance, drafting common history textbooks or developing regional infrastructure in border areas, including construction of bridges over the Ipeľ River, a speedway connecting Košice and Miskolc, etc. For further information, please see Výročná správa Ministerstva zahraničných vecí Slovenskej republiky. Zahraničná politika v roku 2007 [Annual Report of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Slovak Republic: Foreign Policy in 2007], (Bratislava: Ministerstvo zahraničných vecí Slovenskej republiky, 2008, pp. 22-23). 96
