Metamorphosis of Radical Right in Slovakia

In early years of democratic consolidation in CEE countries Slovakia became a text-book example of nationalism and radical right appeals. Recently we observe a decline in the mobilising potential of a nationalistic agenda, above all that focused on Hungarian minority and Slovak-Hungarian relations. The ‘complementarity of national populisms’ – Slovak and Hungarian - which has been working so efficiently in addressing voters until 2010, has been weakened. Social and economic issues are now at the top of political agenda. There are another factors contributing to this phenomenon. However, this does not mean that the nationalistic agenda entirely disappeared from Slovakia’s domestic politics. It remains a ‘sleeping potentiality‘ and we can identify two poles of dangerous development. One is the rising popularity of the ultra-nationalist extremists, which capitalizes on Roma issue and could act in a similar way to Jobbik in Hungary. The other phenomenon is the widespread ‘soft nationalism’ which is present in the appeals of the mainstream parties, including the left-leaning governing party Smer-SD. The paper will focus on the changes in the nationalistic agenda, the de/re?alignment radical right voters and will examine the metamorphosis of the radical right agenda on the case of Slovakia, but in broader context of CEE countries. The study will use public opinion survey data, as well as exit poll and electoral statistics.