Petőcz Kálmán (szerk.): National Populism and Slovak - Hungarian Relations in Slovakia 2006-2009 (Somorja, 2009)
Peter Učen: Approaching National Populism
Peter Učeň becomes somewhat similar to the old national populism (a soft version of the national populism?), and to what extent, will largely depend on the developments within the SMER party itself. CoiNClusiOIN In this text we attempted to clarify the applicability of the term national populism under post-communism. We suggested a caveat that its meaning and usage were different than in the case of the western populist radical right. Having let the reader know our opinion of what the national populist politics in Slovakia stood for, we further recommended a meticulous inquiry into the nature of nationalism and populism in Slovakia making use of a handful of concepts featured in the text. Sceptic as it has been regarding the possibility of the national populist revival;27 the argument admitted that there were concerns in this matter to be dealt with. These concerns have not only to be addressed but their possible implications for the practice of citizenship as well as the notion of the political nation has to be assessed. In the latter regard, we anticipate following trends to take place in Slovakia: (1) Furtherance of the current notion of citizenship based both on liberal rights and the tacit assumption “we are all Slovaks”; (2) Determined but largely non-aggressive resistance to endowing the notion of Slovak citizenship with more of something possibly called ‘cultural rights’ or even the rights pertaining to territorial and/or functional autonomy; (3) Continuous ignorance of the problem of a true quality of citizenship our Roma countrymen ‘enjoy’. Whether any of those anticipations hold true will largely depend of the developments within the ruling parties - each of them endowed with a noteworthy pool of the populist genes and a record of the nationalist politics. Even though the radical left fell into oblivion and the appeal of the old national populism by and large vanished, nativism of the radical right is here to stay. It may possibly develop into a more malign form with the increasing number of immigrants from other cultures taking place in Slovakia. Overall, while not dismissing the importance of the development of the ‘other side’ (namely the Magyar one)28, we believe that the debate on citizenship and consolidation of the political national will be driven by the (explicit or implicit) Slovak nationalism. 34
