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
Slovakia since 2004... Nevertheless, the SNS won its duel with SMK-MKP by the thinnest of margins thanks to 11.73% of the popular vote.4 ParIíameintary EIectíons ín 2006: Deteríoratíon of SIovaI<HuNqARÍAN ReIatíons SMER-Social Democracy (SMER-SD) won the election by the landslide, receiving 29.14% of the popular vote. All those involved expected lengthy negotiations on forming a new ruling coalition but everything turned out differently. After two weeks of talks, SMER-SD Chairman Robert Fico announced that the new administration would also include the SNS led by Ján Slota and the ĽS-HZDS led by Vladimír Mečiar; in fact, it was the most logical choice not only with respect to previous developments but also because the three parties’ constituencies are quite similar. The new government constellation immediately provoked anxiety among ethnic Hungarians, their political representatives and official political circles in Hungary. Obviously, their memories of the authoritarian tandem of Mečiar-Slota that was set in motion in 1994 by simple-minded Ján Ľupták and his Association of Slovak Workers were way too fresh. Fico’s government reservation ticket for the SNS outraged not only the Hungarians and liberally-oriented Slovaks but also foreign partners of SMER-SD from the Party of European Socialists (PES), the socialist faction of the European Parliament (EP). The PES warned SMER-SD first and after the party refused to take its reservations seriously, it suspended the party’s associated PES membership on July 5, 2006.5 Prime Minister Robert Fico and other constitutional officials very emphatically opposed the PES decision and dismissed harsh criticism by Hungarian government officials. Fico stated that the decision to launch the procedure potentially leading to cancellation of his party’s associated PES membership reflected “the interests of supranational corporations and monopolies that fear losing their profits” as well as activities of Hungarian MEPs who were allegedly unhappy that SMK-MKP was no longer part of government {ČTK news agency, July 7, 2008). Following the failure of the European Union’s attempts to ostracize Austria’s administration that featured national populist Jörg Haider in 2001, it was most unlikely that this kind of criticism would or could lead to reconstruction of the Slovak Government whose formal legitimacy was indisputable; nevertheless, these attempts to play down the international community’s anxiety were ill conceived. 69
