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

Kálmán Petőcz: National Populism and Electoral Behaviour

National Populism and Electoral Behaviour

Table 15

Election results of the national-populist bloc’s candidates in presidential elections between 1999 and 2009 in the Sobrance district (%)

Year and round of elections

Sobrance district

Košice region

Slovakia total

Vladimír Mečiar

1999, 1st round

50.9

24.2

37.2

1999, 2nd round

56.8

27.3

42.8

2004, 1st round

45.0

28.3

32.7

2004, 2nd round

58.3

36.4

40.1

Ivan Gašparovič

2009, 1st round

64.0

42.3

46.7

2009, 2nd round

81.8

50.7

55.5

Source: Statistical Office of the Slovak Republic; author's own calculations.

Table 15 corroborates our hypothesis that voting patterns of the Sobrance district are generally quite specific. On the nationwide level, Vladimir Mečiar advanced into the second round of 1999 and 2004 presidential elections but was more or less clearly defeated in all four rounds. He was particularly unsuccessful in the Košice region, especially in 1999 when he was annihilated by Rudolf Schuster, then mayor of Košice. However, most voters in the Sobrance district completely ignored Schuster’s campaigning and clearly sided with Vladimír Mečiar. The story was repeated in 2002 when voters in the Sobrance district remained faithful to radical and more nationalistic Mečiar and largely indifferent to softer populism of Ivan Gašparovič backed by SMER-SD. In terms of voter support for Mečiar, the Sobrance district ranked second (!) of all districts in Slovakia, trailing only the Čadca district that is viewed as a traditional stronghold of nationalpopulist forces in Slovakia. In 2009, voters were not forced to choose between ‘harder’ and ‘softer’ populism anymore, which transformed into massive support for Gašparovič. In fact, the only districts where the incumbent president posted better election performance than in the Sobrance district were Pohár (i.e. his hometown), Medzilaborce, Čadca and Kysucké Nové Mesto districts.

Let us take the comparison to another level and examine the Sobrance district’s voting patterns in parliamentary elections. The relevant data are featured in Table 16.

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